THIS  BUST  OF  LINCOLN  WAS  MADE  BY  MAX  BACHMANN,  SCULPTOR, 

FOR  THE  REPUBLIC; AN  CLUB  OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK, 

AND  WAS  EXECUTED  IN  THE  SPRING  OF  1909.    THE 

ORIGINAL  IN  BRONZE  IS  AT  THE  CLUB-HOUSE. 


\xi  p  IA.  '• 


V 


ADDRESSES 


DELIVERED  AT  THE  LINCOLN" 
DINNERS  OF 


THE   REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 


IN  RESPONSE  TO  THE 
TOAST 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

i 
1887-1909 


PRIVATELY  PRINTED 
FOR 

THE  EEPUBUCAN  CLUB  OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 
1909 


COPYRIGHT,  1909 

BY 
THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB  OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 


This  Edition  is  limited  to  five  hundred  copies, 
of  which  this  copy  is 

Number   . 


CONTENTS 

ADDRESSES  BY—  Pa 

Joseph  R.  Hawley 7 

William  M.  Evarts 17 

Horace  Porter 27 

Shelby  M.  Cullom 37 

H.  L.  Wayland 47 

G.  E.  Strobridge 61 

Robert  G.  Ingersoll 71 

John  P.  Newman 81 

John  M.  Thurston 89 

Chaimcey  M.  Depew 101 

Melancthon  W.  Stryker in 

Albert  J.  Beveridge 127 

Howard  Duffi«ld 141 

Robert  G.  Cousins 153 

John  N.  Baldwin 167 

James  W.  Gleed 179 

Frank  S.  Black 205 

Hamilton  W.  Mabie 215 

Jonathan  P.  Dolliver 229 

Horace  Porter 245 

Oliver  0.  Howard 257 

James  H.  Wilson 271 

Morris    Sheppard 279 

Charles  E.  Hughes 291 

Theodore  E.  Burton 301 

Booker  T.  Washington 317 

APPENDIX: 

Benjamin   Harrison 329 

William  McKinley 333 

Theodore    Roosevelt 341 

Hannibal  Hamlin 355 


255358 


PREFACE 

On  the  12th  day  of  February,  1887,  The  Republican  Club  of  the 
City  of  New  York  held  its  first  banquet  to  commemorate  the  birth 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  on  each  succeeding  year  the  event  has 
been  fittingly  observed.  The  function  is  now  one  of  the  largest 
of  its  kind  held  in  the  United  States  and  has  assumed  proportions 
of  National  significance. 

The  orations  here  published,  in  response  to  the  toast  of  "Abra 
ham  Lincoln,"  were  delivered  by  men  distinguished  for  their  elo 
quence,  prominent  in  our  National  life  and  many  of  whom  were 
personally  acquainted  with  Lincoln.  Their  speeches,  therefore, 
add  valuable  material  and  new  and  important  facts  to  Lincoln 
literature. 

In  the  Appendix  will  be  found  speeches  delivered  at  the  Lincoln 
Dinners  by  former  Presidents  of  the  United  States — Harrison,  Mc- 
Kinley  and  Roosevelt — and  by  Hon.  Hannibal  Hamlin,  Lincoln's 
Vice-President. 

This  volume  is  published  in  the  hope  that  the  lessons  of  Lincoln's 
life,  so  eloquently  portrayed  in  its  pages,  may  prove  an  inspiration 
to  the  readers,  and  add  to  the  love,  respect  and  admiration  that  the 
world  has  always  manifested  for  the  far-seeing,  lovable  spirit  of 
our  martyred  President,  Abraham  Lincoln. 

CHARLES  H.  YOUNG, 

President. 
April  15th,  1909. 


THE  FIRST 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1887 


Address  of 
HON.  JOSEPH  R.  HAWLEY 


JOSEPH  RUSSELL  HAWLEY,  LL.D. 

Senator  Hawley  was  born  in  Stewartsville,  S.  C., 
1826,  but  spent  his  early  life  in  New  York  and  Con 
necticut.  He  graduated  from  Hamilton  College,  1847; 
was  admitted  to  the  Bar  but  gravitated  to  journalism 
and  became  an  ardent  Abolitionist  and  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  new  Republican  party.  He  was  part 
proprietor  of  the  Hartford  "Courant."  H«  enlisted  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  Rebellion  and  was  brevetted  a 
major-general  in  1864,  taking  part  in  many  important 
battles  of  the  Virginia  campaigns.  In  1866  he  was 
elected  Governor  of  Connecticut.  In  1868  he  was  presi 
dent  of  the  Republican  National  Convention  that  nom 
inated  Grant  for  the  presidency.  He  was  elected  Con 
gressman  for  the  First  Connecticut  District,  and  in  1881 
U.  S.  Senator  from  that  State.  He  was  president  of  the 
Centennial  Commission  in  1876. 


ADDRESS  OF 

HON.    JOSEPH    R.    HAWLEY 


I  am  profoundly  grateful  for  the  cordiality  of  your  greeting. 
Three  days  ago  I  received  notice  that  this  evening  I  was  to  address 
what  I  understood  was  the  Young  Men's  Republican  Club  of  New 
York,  and  that  I  would  be  expected  to  say  something  concerning 
Abraham  Lincoln.  I  have  had  no  leisure  hour  since  that  time — no 
hour  of  entire  peace  and  quiet,  save  those  spent  in  sleep.  It  is  not 
given  to  every  man  to  have  entire  leisure  for  study,  reflection  and 
penmanship — like  our  friend  Depew,  who  doubtless  has  a  thor 
oughly-prepared  speech.  His  lateness  in  arrival  was  certainly  sus 
picious. 

I  thought  it  was  a  young  men's  Republican  club,  and  it  is; 
for  we  are,  a  few  of  us,  at  this  moment,  looking  into  the  mirrors; 
and  a  man  is  as  old  as  he  feels;  a  woman,  perhaps,  as  old  as  she 
looks.  We  are  feeling  young  to-night,  and  I  had  (thinking  the  in 
vitation  a  compliment  to  my  youth)  many  things  in  my  mind  to 
say  concerning  the  pleasure  that  I  feel  in  hearing  of  the  organiza 
tion  of  young  men's  Republican  clubs  in  several  of  the  New  Eng 
land  States  and  elsewhere.  It  is  getting  to  be  a  fashion  with  us  in 
New  England — in  Rhode  Island  and  in  Connecticut  especially — 
that  the  really  young  men,  the  boys  of  twenty-one,  twenty-five, 
thirty  and  thirty-five,  should  organize  young  men's  Republican 
clubs,  taking  up  the  glorious  traditions  that  have  come  down  to 
them  from  the  history  of  the  last  twenty-five  years,  and  prepar- 


THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 


ing  to  make  the  future  as  true  to  whatever  is  noble  and  beautiful 
in  the  idea  of  the  republic  as  the  past  twenty-five  years  have  been. 

I  was  asked  to  say  something  concerning  Lincoln.  Well,  sir, 
like  all  the  rest  of  you,  and  like  the  rest  of  the  world,  I  have  been 
thinking  of  nothing  but  what  was  good  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  No, 
not  all  the  rest  of  the  world ;  but  like  all  of  the  Republicans.  Why, 
it  is  only  a  very  few  years,  it  seems  to  me,  since  men  spoke  of 
him  in  the  public  prints,  habitually,  as  a  "guerilla" ;  even  sneer 
ing  at  him,  after  his  glorious  death,  as  the  "late  lamented" — that 
being  the  favorite  phrase  of  a  great  metropolitan  journal  at  one 
time;  and  there  were  men  who  called  him  "uncouth,"  "coarse," 
"brutal,"  "ignorant,"  and  "rail-splitter"  in  jest  and  not  in  honor. 
But  all  that  has  gone  by  now,  and  there  is  not  in  the  civilized 
world  a  voice  or  a  pen  that  does  not  place  Abraham  Lincoln  among 
the  foremost  of  the  world's  history — not  one — and  it  has  become 
the  fashion,  even  among  our  friends,  the  enemy,  to  speak  of  him 
with  respect. 

I  have  here  Abraham  Lincoln's  biography,  as  written  by  him 
self,  about  thirty  years  ago,  for  Larman's  Dictionary  of  Congress: 
"Born  February  12,  1809"— well,  he  would  not  be  the  oldest  of  our 
dear  old  friends  if  he  were  with  us  now — "in  Harden  County, 
Kentucky.  Education  defective.  Profession,  lawyer.  Have  been 
a  captain  of  volunteers  in  the  Black  Hawk  war."  What  is  a 
captain  nowadays?  The  distinguished  man  is  a  private!  "Post 
master  at  a  very  small  office.  Four  times  a  member  of  the  Illinois 
Legislature" — New  York  men  don't  think  much  of  that — "and 
was  a  member  of  the  lower  house  of  Congress.  Yours,  &c.,  Abra 
ham  Lincoln." 

Well,  there  has  been  an  addition  made  to  that  biography  since 
that  time.  "Education  defective."  I  suppose  that  there  are  still 
people  in  the  world  who  will  say  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  de- 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JOSEPH  R.  HAWLEY 


fective  in  what  is  called  culture.  He  had  none  of  the  advantages 
that  the  salon  gives  to  men.  There  were  no  gatherings  of  intel 
lectual,  trained,  travelled  and  experienced  people  to  improve  his 
manners  or  his  language;  yet  none  since  Socrates  has  spoken  like 
him;  and  there  have  been  very  few  in  all  the  world's  history  whom 
the  common  people  heard  more  gladly. 

What  was  it,  then,  that  made  Abraham  Lincoln  one  of  the 
men  who,  in  truth  and  justice,  was  of  the  very  finest  human  cul 
ture  known  to  mankind  ?  Let  the  eminence  to  which  he  attained, 
the  power  he  had  over  men,  the  almost  divine  sagacity  with  which 
he  led  them — let  these  things,  then,  be  an  encouragement  to  all 
men  who  believe  in  the  possibility  as  well  as  the  necessity  of  pop 
ular  government  in  the  coming  ages  of  the  world. 

Abraham  Lincoln  had  a  profound  faith  in  the  people.  Oh,  if 
one  of  us  says,  nowadays,  that  you  may  in  the  end  trust  the  peo 
ple  ;  that  it  is  a  magnificent  jury ;  that  if  you  have  a  good  cause  and 
will  fight  for  it,  and  write  for  it,  and  talk  for  it,  and  preach  for 
it,  you  may  trust  the  great  heart  of  the  American  people  to  act 
right  finally,  there  are  not  lacking  men  all  around  Europe,  and  in 
considerable  numbers  in  the  United  States,  who  put  up  their 
glasses,  as  I  am  obliged  to  do  mine,  and  look  at  us  with  curiosity. 

I  am  not  going  to  read  to  you  at  length,  but  I  have  here  in  a 
delicate  little  volume,  selected  by  the  author  of  "The  Man  With 
out  a  Country" — which  was  a  regiment,  a  brigade  of  itself — some 
extracts  from  what  Abraham  Lincoln  said: 

"Why  should  there  not  be  a  patient  confidence  in  the  ultimate 
justice  of  the  people?  Is  there  any  better  or  equal  hope  in  the 
world?  In  our  present  difference  is  either  party  without  faith 
or  being  in  the  right?  If  the  Almighty  Ruler  of  Nations,  with 
His  eternal  truth  and  justice,  be  on  your  side  of  the  North,  or 
on  your  side  of  the  South,  then  truth  and  justice  will  surely  pre- 


10  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

vail  by  the  judgment  of  the  great  tribunal  of  the  American 
people." 

Again:  "There  are  among  us  those  who,  if  the  Union  be  pre 
served,  will  live  to  see  it  contain  two  hundred  and  fifty  millions 
of  population.  The  struggle  of  to-day  is  not  altogether  for  to 
day;  it  is  for  the  vast  future  also." 

Again:  "No  men  living  are  more  to  be  trusted  than  those  who 
toil  up  from  poverty;  none  less  inclined  to  take  that  which  they 
have  not  honestly  earned."  Which  I  believe  to  be  true. 

And  in  February,  1861 :  "I  cannot  but  know  what  you  all  know, 
that,  without  a  name"  (as  that  biography  shows),  "perhaps  with 
out  a  reason  why  I  should  have  a  name,  there  has  fallen  upon 
me  a  task  such  as  did  not  rest  even  upon  the  Father  of  his  Coun 
try;  and,  so  feeling,  I  cannot  but  turn  and  look  for  that  support 
without  which  it  will  be  impossible  to  perform  that  great  task. 
I  turn,  then,  and  look  to  the  great  American  people,  and  to  that 
God  who  has  never  forsaken  them." 

I  must  necessarily  speak  somewhat  disjointedly  and  from  the 
impulse  of  the  moment.  My  friend  on  my  right,  whom  I  asked 
for  an  idea,  or  a  point,  or  a  text,  said:  "Some  people  say  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  would  not  be  a  Republican  if  he  were  here 
to-day."  I  wish  I  felt  as  sure  of  iny  own  salvation,  or  of  anything 
else  in  this  world,  as  I  do  that  Abraham  Lincoln  would  be  drift 
ing  along  to-day  with  that  indescribable  and  wonderful  thing  that 
people  call  "the  spirit  of  the  age."  He  could  not  have  been  any 
thing  else. 

We  are  Republicans  to-day  because  \ve  inherit  the  most  mag 
nificent  body  of  tradition  that  ever  was  given  to  a  party  in  the 
world.  If  I  were  to  live  forty  years  hence  I  would  vote  for  the 
name.  We  reconstructed  the  foundations  of  the  great  Republican 
Government.  We  demonstrated  that  whenever  anything  is  to  be 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JOSEPH  R.  HAWLEY 


done  by  a  whole  people  it  can  better  be  done  by  a  free  people 
than  by  any  other  people.  We  demonstrated  that  all  men  can 
know  more  than  any  one  man;  which  is  the  foundation  of  Re 
publican  government.  We  cleaned  out,  and  cleared  out,  erased 
and  wiped  out  forever  all  distinctions,  not  in  race,  not  in  knowl 
edge,  not  in  ability,  but  all  distinctions  between  the  rights  of 
different  classes  and  races  of  men. 

We  have  changed  European  history.  We  have  changed  the  his 
tory  of  the  world.  For,  had  we  failed,  no  man  knows  how  far 
backward  would  have  gone,  or  how  many  centuries  would  have 
been  delayed,  the  great  Republican  experiment.  Are  there  any 
men  in  this  country  who  love  and  worship — yea,  worship  the  flag 
as  we  do?  To  whom  is  it  sacred  if  not  to  us?  Are  there  any 
men  in  the  country  who  so  value  the  honor — financial  and  in  all 
things — of  this  country  ? 

From  whom  came  these  feelings  but  from  the  men  who,  during 
the  war,  whether  in  the  ranks  of  the  great  armies  of  the  re 
public  or  in  the  equally  courageous  and  far-sighted  hall  of  the 
legislators  of  the  republic,  who  dared  to  legislate,  to  trust  the 
future,  and  to  trust  the  people? 

Abraham  Lincoln  would  have  been  with  us  to-day  not  satisfied 
with  everything,  for  I  do  not  know  any  man  who  is  satisfied  with 
everything  that  has  been  done,  and  with  everything  that  is — the 
man  who  is  a  Bourbon ;  he  has  no  hope  for  the  future,  and  no  pur 
pose  of  improvement.  Lincoln  certainly  could  not  have  been  a 
Democrat.  Could  he  have  been  a  Mugwump?  I  have  some  de 
lightful  friends  who  proudly  bear  that  name.  I  have  no  quarrels 
with  them.  They  are  gentlemen  of  culture,  of  education ;  they  are 
patriots;  they  hope  the  best  for  their  country.  I  divide  them. 
There  is  the  Mugwump  who  boasts  of  his  departure  from  his  old 
brethren  simply  upon  a  difference  concerning  one  man.  Well, 


12  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

that  election  has  passed,  and  I  do  not  see  why  he  should  have 
that  difference  now.  In  common  cases  he  does  not.  He  had  a 
right  to  entertain  that  difference.  My  judgment  of  the  facts  was 
altogether  different  from  his;  but  I  am  looking  to  the  votes,  and 
I  will  have  no  controversy  with  him  about  an  election  which 
was  over  two  years  ago,  if  he  is  right  in  the  future — in  Connecticut 
and  elsewhere. 

But  the  term  "Mugwump"  I  have  applied  with  a  larger  range. 
There  are  men  who  are  Mugwumps  politically,  intellectually,  scien 
tifically  and  religiously.  They  are  pessimists  in  the  whole  field  of 
the  world's  thought  and  activity.  They  apparently  believe  in 
nothing.  And  while  the  great  toiling  millions  of  the  world  must 
go  along  the  dusty  or  the  alternately  muddy  highway,  doing  the 
best  they  can  to  carry  the  burdens  of  their  town,  of  their  state, 
and  of  their  country,  to  say  nothing  of  their  families,  there  is  a 
class  of  men  who  sit  on  the  fences  and  leisurely  laugh  at  us  poor 
devils  who  wear  the  blue,  and  have  got  to  get  to  Gettysburg  or 
to  Vicksburg  by  daylight. 

While  we  are  not  all  religious  men,  yet  we  all  pray  once  in  four 
years,  or  oftener,  for  the  flag  and  for  the  republic.  I  have  no 
liking  for  a  man  who  does  not  believe  something;  and  I  feel  a 
great  hostility  toward  the  man  who  would  take  away  the  belief  of 
anybody  without  giving  him  something  better  in  return. 

There  is  a  distinguished  disbeliever  in  the  United  States  (but 
I  do  not  come  any  nearer  naming  him),  who  came  into  the  read 
ing-room  of  the  Riggs  House  one  day.  A  distinguished  gentle 
man  (not  of  the  Republican  party,  but,  on  the  whole,  a  very  good 
sort  of  a  fellow),  who  was  sitting  there  and  enjoying  his  morn 
ing  cigar,  said  to  him : 

"Robert" — I  beg  your  pardon,  I  will  not  name  him — "do  you 
see  that  man  crossing  the  road?" 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JOSEPH  R.  HAWLEY  13 

It  was  a  slushy  day  on  the  asphalt  streets  of  Washington;  he 
wore  two  crutches;  he  was  honorably  entitled  to  them;  and  he 
was  coming  across  very  carefully.  Said  he,  "Robert,  blank  you." 

Said  Robert,  "What  do  you  mean?" 

"Why,"  said  he,  "you  belong  to  the  class  of  men  that  are  kick 
ing  away  that  poor  devil's  crutches  and  giving  him  nothing  else  to 
help  him  through  this  world."  And  they  are  Mugwumps. 

I  think  this  is  the  greatest  country,  the  best  country,  the  most 
promising  country,  the  leading  country  of  the  world;  the  nearest 
to  perfection  in  its  constitution,  in  its  laws,  in  its  hopes,  and  in  its 
ambitions;  and  altogether  and  in  every  way  the  best  nation  that 
ever  lived  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  I  think  it  has  the  best  history 
to  boast  of.  I  think  that  if  you  begin  with  Washington,  come 
down  to  Adams  and  Jefferson,  Madison,  Monroe,  Adams,  Jackson, 
Van  Buren,  Harrison,  Tyler  and  Polk  even,  and  old  Zach  and  Fill- 
more,  and  even  Buchanan,  to  Lincoln  and  Johnson,  and  all  of  them 
to  this  day,  we  can  challenge  any  other  nation  in  all  the  world 
to  compare  the  rulers  of  a  hundred  years  with  us. 

There  is  no  nation,  I  think,  in  all  the  world  that  has  had  a 
country  so  free  from  great  revolutionary  and  fundamental  changes 
as  ours  has  been;  although  the  philosophers  make  as  a  favorite 
objection  to  a  democratic  form  of  government  that  it  is  subject 
to  violent  revolutions  and  unreasonable  changes.  It  is  the  Re 
publican  party — the  Republican  party  under  whatever  name  it 
may  be,  whatever  changes  it  may  undergo,  and  whatever  possible 
changes  of  name  it  may  have  (although  I  do  not  see  why  any 
body  should  throw  away  the  good  will  of  the  name) — it  is  the 
Republican  party  of  the  Republic  that  carries  the  Ark  of  the 
Covenant  as  the  instinct  of  the  future — a  belief  in  liberty,  justice 
and  equality — and  the  blessed  flag  that  symbolizes  all. 


THE  SECOND 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  n,  1888 


Address  of 
HON.  WILLIAM  M.  EVARTS 


WILLIAM  MAXWELL  EVARTS,  LL.D. 

Senator  Evarts  was  born  in  Boston,  Mass,  1818.  He 
graduated  from  Yale,  1837,  and  after  a  year  of  study  at 
the  Harvard  Law  School,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
1840.  For  many  years  he  successfully  practised  law  in 
New  York  City.  He  was  attorney  for  the  defence  in  the 
impeachment  of  President  Johnson,  and  afterwards  At 
torney-General  of  the  U.  S.  In  1877  he  became  Secre 
tary  of  State,  and  in  1885  he  entered  the  U.  S.  Senate. 
He  died  in  1901. 


ADDRESS  OF 

HON.   WILLIAM    M.    EVARTS 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Eepublican  Club :  I  am  quite 
sure  that  you  will  allow  me  to  count  myself  with  the  Club,  and 
as  one  of  its  members,  and  not  as  a  stranger  by  invitation  entitled 
to  the  special  courtesies  we  pay  to  our  invited  guests.  We  are 
all  at  home  here  in  New  York,  we  honest  and  earnest  Republicans 
of  this  club,  and  we  rejoice  to  have  the  opportunities  and  the 
means  of  spreading  an  inviting  feast  to  eminent  public  men  of  our 
party  to  join  in  the  celebration  of  that  party  in  its  homage  to  the 
name  and  the  fame  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Your  overflowing  tables 
and  your  animated  faces  and  exuberant  spirits  teach  me  as  well 
as  our  visitors  to  look  upon  you  as  the  examples  and  the  leaders 
engaged  in  a  renovation  of  the  Republican  party,  and  not  in  any 
lamentation  at  any  of  its  disasters. 

How  great  a  thing  it  is  that  in  our  generation  a  political  party 
should  have  furnished  to  the  admiration  of  the  world  so  great 
a  character,  so  great  a  conduct,  so  great  a  fame,  so  great  an  in 
fluence  in  this  wide  world  of  ours  as  Abraham  Lincoln.  Accus 
tomed  to  look  upon  the  overspreading  fame  and  influence  of  Wash 
ington  as  incapable  of  appropriation,  in  our  later  politics,  to  the 
just  pretensions  and  pride  of  any  one  party,  how  great  a  thing  it 
is  for  our  party, — an  actual  living,  leading  party  of  our  day, — 
that  we  have  produced  in  the  secular  order  of  time  a  name  to  match 
that  of  Washington,  and  to  give  a  new  word  to  conjure  with  for 


1 8  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

American  liberty  and  American  independence.  The  great  State  of 
the  old  thirteen  had  claimed,  perhaps,  as  the  chiefest  glory  of  its 
own  greatness,  that  it  was  the  birthplace  of  Washington ;  that  its 
great  son,  the  Father  of  his  Country,  slept  on  the  banks  of  their 
own  river,  the  Potomac.  Now  one  of  the  new  States  since  added 
to  the  old  thirteen,  the  great  State  of  Illinois,  has  been  lifted  up 
out  of  the  whole  body  of  the  thirty-eight  states  and  put  on  the 
same  plane  and  height  with  old  Virginia,  as  the  home  and  growth 
and  scene  of  the  triumph  of  Abraham  Lincoln;  and  Illinois,  in 
the  long  ages,  shall  stand  out  as  the  State  identified  with  him,  as 
Virginia  is  with  George  Washington.  This  glory  of  these  two 
great  names,  thus  now  diffused  over  the  whole  nation  and  shared 
between  the  old  and  the  new  States,  is  to  become  henceforth,  let  us 
hope,  a  new  security  against  discords  between  North  and  South, 
East  and  West,  for  all  alike  shall  worship  at  these  shrines  of  lib 
erty  and  justice. 

I  cannot,  Mr.  President,  speak  as  in  narrative,  nor  even  as  in 
illustration,  of  the  wonderful  career  of  this  most  remarkable  Amer 
ican.  I  can  only  ask  your  attention  to  the  very  brief  span  of 
years  which  covers  his  first  introduction  to  the  general  knowledge 
of  his  countrymen,  and  the  great  stages,  so  few  and  so  vast  in  their 
upward  rise,  to  the  last  solemn  culmination  of  his  life  in  our 
sorrow  at  his  death.  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  1856,  was  spoken  of  in  the 
Republican  party,  as  a  candidate  for  the  Vice-Presidency,  and  re 
ceived,  I  think,  something  over  one  hundred  votes  for  that  place; 
but  I  do  not  think  it  is  saying  too  much,  as  to  the  country  at  large, 
that,  except  among  his  neighbors  in  his  own  State  and  in  the 
neighboring  States,  this  was  the  first  mention  of  that  name  on  the 
wide  theater  of  public  fame  of  the  United  States.  Two  years  after 
ward  he  was  made  a  candidate,  in  the  purposes  of  the  Republicans 
of  Illinois,  as  their  leader  and  champion  in  the  campaign  then 


ADDRESS   OF   HON.   WILLIAM   M.    EVARTS  ig 

opening,  to  send  him  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  to  dis 
place  the  power  and  favor  held  by  Mr.  Douglas  with  the  people  of 
Illinois.  Out  of  that  great  contest,  in  which  this  somewhat  new 
champion  of  Republican  principles  of  liberty  and  of  duty,  was 
matched  against  the  Democratic  purposes  represented  by  Mr.  Doug 
las,  came  the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln  to  be  knov/n  almost  as 
fully,  and  as  clearly,  and  as  warmly  throughout  the  land,  as  was 
the  young  stripling  David  throughout  Judea,  after  the  smooth 
stone  from  his  sling  had  smitten  the  giant  Goliath.  And  from  that 
step  forward  you  will  find  in  sacred  or  profane  history  no  more 
wonderful  and  no  more  rapid  advance  in  human  aifairs,  than  this 
of  Abraham  Lincoln's  since  the  elevation  of  the  young  shepherd 
to  be  king  of  Judea,  the  king  that  this  religious  people  honor  and 
admire  as  the  great  king  of  ancient  times. 

Now,  wonderful,  is  it  not,  that  from  that  first  step  taken  in  1858, 
but  two  years  afterwards  he  became  the  leader  and  the  candidate, 
not  of  a  party  in  the  ordinary  contests  and  competitions  of  politics, 
but  the  leader  of  an  aroused,  and  indignant,  and  resentful  na 
tion  against  the  evil  shames  into  which  we  had  been  plunged  by 
the  Democratic  party;  and  thus  he  was  made  the  leader,  not  of  a 
party,  but  of  a  nation  that  was  rising  in  its  power  to  shake  off  the 
manacles  and  fetters  that  had  bound  its  limbs.  Then,  from  the 
opening  of  his  authority  of  rule  under  the  Constitution,  see  how 
everything  that  he  had  to  do  and  everything  that  he  did  was  great 
and  noble,  and  wonderful  and  new.  In  the  first  month  following 
his  inauguration  what  more  wonderful  bugle-note  was  ever  blown 
by  human  breath  than  that  which  called  upon  the  people  of  the 
United  States  who  loved  their  country  and  were  loyal  to  its  insti 
tutions,  to  come  out  in  arms  to  suppress  a  rebellion  that  expected 
to  be  triumphant  by  our  negligence  and  indifference!  Upon  this 
same  great  summons  behold  how  swiftly,  covering  this  great  coast 


THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 


of  ours  from  the  capes  of  Delaware  to  New  Orleans  and  Galveston, 
and  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  the  whole  sea  was  crowded  with  ships 
to  enforce  a  blockade  that  the  world  had  never  dreamed  of  as 
possible  of  enforcement.  And  so  on,  step  by  step,  the  great  army 
of  citizen  soldiers  grew,  and  the  zeal  and  the  fervor  and  the  pa 
triotic  sacrifices  of  the  nation  marshaled  the  manhood  of  the 
country,  and  marshaled  the  wealth  of  the  country,  all  to  be  poured 
into  the  lap  of  the  great  Government  and  placed  at  its  service 
to  preserve  for  all  this  people,  the  American  nation,  with  its  con 
stitution  unpolluted  and  its  territory  unmutilated.  Great  occur 
rences  in  the  history  of  the  world !  The  example  is  set,  and  here 
after  the  people  may  rest  secure  without  an  army  and  without  a 
navy  when  it  is  known  that  a  people  like  this,  when  their  honor 
or  their  interests  are  struck  at  by  intestine  or  by  foreign  foes,  is 
able  to  array  on  battlefields  and  to  display  on  the  wide  ocean 
enough  of  warlike  power  to  meet  the  warfare  of  the  world.  But 
see  how  all  this  material  pride  and  power  was  but  the  attendant 
and  the  servant,  as  it  has  been  from  the  beginning,  but  the  min 
ister  of  the  great  design  of  Providence,  of  whom  Abraham  Lin 
coln  was  the  trusted  instrument.  Then  we  come  to  the  greatest 
act  in  the  history  of  our  world  of  personal  influence  in  its  affairs, 
the  emancipation,  by  the  pen  of  a  ruler,  of  the  millions  of  the 
enslaved  fellow-countrymen  of  ours.  And  to  crown  all,  to  make 
that  fact  permanent  and  constitutional,  that  had  been  justified  and 
was  needed  as  a  step  in  the  war,  he  lived  to  see  a  proclaimed  peace 
not  over  a  subjugated  people,  but  over  a  suppressed  rebellion. 

By  a  happy  inspiration  given  to  few  orators,  Abraham  Lincoln 
did  what  no  orator  since  Pericles'  time  has  been  able  to  do — that 
is,  to  add  one  exhilarating  and  ennobling  thought  to  the  ever  mem 
orable  oration  which  Pericles  delivered  over  the  dead  of  Greece 
that  died  for  Greece.  Every  scholar  that  has  read  that  perfect 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  WILLIAM  M.   EVARTS  21 

piece  of  patriotic  feeling  and  eloquent  truth  of  the  Greek  orator, 
must  admit  that  Abraham  Lincoln's  single  phrase,  at  Gettysburg, 
"The  world  will  little  note,  nor  long  remember  what  we  say  here, 
but  it  can  never  forget  what  they  did  here,"  will  live  with  the 
splendid  rhetoric  of  Pericles. 

Now,  what  was  there,  in  the  future  of  his  life,  of  great  historic 
fame,  of  great  and  arduous  yet  completed  and  triumphant  duty,  left 
for  Abraham  Lincoln  to  live  for  and  to  do  ?  There  might  be  much 
else  for  this  country  that  he  should  have  survived  for,  but  who 
that  looks  at  a  rounded  and  complete  character  and  fame  but  must 
recognize  that  there  was  nothing  left  for  him  in  the  stages  of  hu 
man  greatness  and  of  grades  of  perpetual  homage  from  mankind, 
but  that  this  great  chosen  and  triumphant  leader  should  be  made  a 
martyr?  Was  there  anything  left  in  the  role  of  human  glory  to 
crown  that  of  Abraham  Lincoln  after  he  had  received  the  surrender 
of  the  rebellion  and  the  acclaim  of  the  nation  as  its  savior,  but 
that  he  should  receive  the  consecrating  crown  of  a  martyr?  And 
this  consecration  came  about,  this  blow  of  malice  and  treason 
struck  down  Abraham  Lincoln,  on  the  day  of  all  the  year,  the  day 
which  we  celebrate  as  Good  Friday,  the  day  the  Savior  fell.  Can 
we  then  fail  to  associate — who  in  Christendom,  in  the  hearts  of 
the  religious  and  Christian  people  of  the  world  but  must  asso 
ciate — this  death  of  Lincoln,  the  martyr  for  liberty  and  the  hopes 
of  civil  institutions  for  man,  with  that  dreadful  day  of  the  cru 
cifixion  ?  That  was  a  sad  night  for  this  country  to  be  sure,  when, 
in  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  he  lost  all  consciousness 
to  things  of  earth.  He  slumbered  through  that  long,  sad  night, 

"But  when  the  sun  in  all  his  state, 
Illumed  the  Eastern  skies, 
He  passed  through  Glory's  morning  gate, 
And  walked  in  Paradise." 


22  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

But  it  is  not  wholly  to-day  that  we  are  to  celebrate  the  mem 
ory  of  Lincoln.  This  marvelous  history  of  an  American  boy,  ended 
at  the  age  of  fifty-six,  tells  a  story  that  belongs  to  the  whole 
world.  For  us,  gathered  here,  his  example,  his  lessons  are  to  be 
accepted  for  practical  duties  and  practical  objects  by  the  great 
political  party  that  shares  with  him  the  glories  of  his  achieve 
ments,  as  he  did  of  ours.  It  is  in  that  name  and  by  that  sign  that 
the  Republican  party  expects  now  to  take  up  and  carry  forward 
the  great  and  continual,  and  let  us  hope  perpetual,  growth  and  ele 
vation,  and  exaltation  of  the  American  people,  purged  of  all  that 
human  nature  below  the  skies  may  hope  to  miss,  as  it  goes  on 
step  by  step;  but  not,  let  me  remind  you,  Republicans  of  New 
York,  by  belittling  or  explaining  away  the  greatness  of  Lincoln 
and  the  greatness  of  the  Republican  party.  Who  would  think 
that,  under  the  exigencies  of  political  agitations  and  political 
aspirations,  we  should  come  to  find  in  great  numbers  of  our  coun 
trymen  a  disposition  to  belittle  and  defame  the  greatness  of  those 
achievements  and  the  wonderful  credit  that  attends  them  all?  Or, 
that  the  nation  in  the  next  following  generation  should  think 
that  it  was  irksome  and  tedious  to  renew  and  perpetuate  those 
feelings,  which  arouse  and  animate  us  in  the  discharge  of  our 
duty? 

Let  us  then  be  true  to  ourselves.  By  our  next  election  we  are 
to  launch  our  Government  with  a  new  President  for  the  first 
term,  upon  our  second  hundred  years.  We  are  bound  to  trust  it 
only  with  men  and  with  principles,  and  with  courage,  and  with 
patriotism  that  can  be  followed  in  the  coming  century,  and  long 
after,  in  the  path  that  is  illuminated  by  the  public  virtues  of 
Washington  and  of  Lincoln.  Does  not  every  Republican  that  de 
serves  the  name  kindle  with  new  feelings  and  with  new  purposes 
whenever  the  name  and  the  birthday  of  Lincoln  are  mentioned? 


ADDRESS   OF   HON.   WILLIAM   M.   EVARTS  23 

Have  we  anything  to  explain  or  to  explain  away  ?  Do  we  want  to 
put  any  new  glosses  and  any  new  interpretations  on  the  triumph 
ant  period  of  the  Republican  party  and  the  culminating  fame 
of  Abraham  Lincoln?  Do  you  wish  to  send  it  out  to  European 
nations  that  the  sober  second  thought  of  the  American  people 
is  a  little  disposed  to  call  that  a  period  of  enthusiasm  which  all 
Republicans  know  was,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  and  from 
the  common  soldier  and  the  common  voter  up  to  Abraham  Lin 
coln  and  the  great  generals  and  the  great  statesmen  about  him, 
an  honest,  and  a  noble,  and  an  unflinching,  and  an  inflexible  pur 
pose  that  this  country  of  ours  should  be  independent  and  free,  able 
to  take  care  of  our  industries,  our  prosperity,  our  character  and 
our  conduct  in  the  face  of  the  world  ?  Where  are  those  idle  and 
frivolous  trumpeters  of  the  subsequent  fame  of  another  party? 
Some  unwise  but  apparently  well-wishing  friend  of  the  President 
has  thought  it  a  good  thing  to  bring  the  two  names  of  the  Pres 
ident  of  the  day  and  the  great  President  of  our  time,  Abraham 
Lincoln,  together  for  comparison.  Who  raised  this  comparison? 
Did  any  Democrat  ever  think  it  worth  his  while  to  put  those  two 
names  together?  Did  any  Republican  ever  wish  to  do  it?  Who 
under  Heaven  dared  to  do  that  injury  to  the  living  President, 
thus  to  reinflame  the  enthusiasm  for  the  great  dead  whose  birth 
day  we  celebrate? 

Now,  the  solemn  character  of  Lincoln,  shown  by  his  pious 
phrases  and  his  sober  reverence,  brings  us  to  this  as  the  wisdom 
of  the  sacred  Scripture :  "A  man's  heart  deviseth  his  way,  but  the 
Lord  directeth  his  steps."  Abraham  Lincoln,  in  his  honest  heart, 
devised  his  way  that  he  would  serve  his  country — that  he  would 
serve  humanity,  that  he  would  serve  it  in  peril,  serve  it  in  pros 
perity,  serve  it  for  the  country,  serve  it  for  the  world;  but  the 
Lord  directed  those  steps  that  he  could  not  foresee,  could  not 


24  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

imagine;  the  Lord  directed  his  steps,  and  there  was  no  crown 
for  him  but  that  which  should  lift  him  into  the  higher  sphere 
of  nearness  to  the  God  whom  he  revered  and  worshipped.  And 
now,  the  undiscovered  country  which  the  steps  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln  now  traverse,  and  toward  which  all  our  steps  tend,  is  crowded 
with  heroes  and  martyrs,  servants  of  their  time,  prophets  and 
great  captains  in  the  service  of  truth;  but  we  must  all  reverently 
feel  that  among  those  majestic  shades  there  is  found,  and  not 
the  least  among  them,  the  august  form  and  glory  of  Abraham 
Lincoln. 


THE  THIRD 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1889 


Address  of 
GEN.  HORACE  PORTER 


GENERAL  HORACE  PORTER,  LL.D. 

General  Porter  was  born  at  Huntingdon,  Pa.,  in  1839. 
He  was  educated  at  the  Lawrence  Scientific  School  and 
at  West  Point,  graduating  from  the  latter  in  1860.  He 
served  throughout  the  Civil  War,  winning  every  com 
missioned  grade  up  to  brigadier-general  and  receiving 
a  Congressional  medal  of  honor  for  gallantry  at  Chicka- 
mauga.  From  1897-1905  he  was  U.  S.  Ambassador  to 
France.  In  1904  he  received  the  Grand  Cross  of  the 
Legion  of  Honor.  He  is  the  author  of  several  books, 
the  best  known  being  "Campaigning  with  Grant." 
He  has  been  the  orator  on  many  notable  occasions, 
among  others  at  the  Inauguration  of  Washington  Arch, 
New  York,  May  4,  1895;  the  dedication  of  Grant's  Tomb, 
New  York,  April  7,  1897;  the  Inauguration  of  the 
Rochambeau  Statue,  Washington,  D.  C.,  May  24,  1902; 
Centennial  of  the  foundation  of  the  U.  S.  Military 
Academy  at  West  Point,  June  n,  1902.  In  1905  he  re 
covered  the  body  of  John  Paul  Jones  at  his  own  ex 
pense,  and  had  charge  of  its  reinterment  at  Annapolis. 
He  is  a  member  and  officer  of  many  important  patriotic 
and  learned  bodies,  and  was  a  delegate  to  The  Hague 
Peace  Conference  of  1907. 


ADDRESS  OF 

GENERAL  HORACE  PORTER 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen:  I  am  oppressed  with,  divers  mis 
givings  in  being  called  upon  to  rise  and  cast  the  first  firebrand  into 
this  peaceful  assemblage,  which  has  evidently  been  enjoying  it 
self  so  much — up  to  the  present  moment.  From  the  Herculean 
task  accomplished  by  the  Republican  party  last  fall,  we  have 
learned  to  look  upon  its  members  as  men  of  deeds  and  not  of 
words — except  the  spellbinders,  and  when  I  am  called  upon  to 
initiate  these  proceedings  by  words,  I  am  reminded  of  the  days 
when  Pythagoras  of  Athens  inaugurated  his  school  of  silence,  and 
Phryne  made  the  opening  speech. 

I  fear  your  committee  is  treating  me  to-night  like  one  of  those 
toy  balloons  that  are  sent  up  previous  to  the  main  ascension  to 
test  the  currents  of  the  air,  but  I  hope  that  in  this  sort  of  bal 
looning  I  may  not  be  subjected  to  the  remark  that  interrupted  the 
Fourth  of  July  orator  in  the  West  while  he  was  tickling  the 
American  Eagle  under  both  wings,  delivering  himself  of  no  end  of 
platitudes,  and  soaring  aloft  into  the  brilliant  realms  of  fancy, 
when  a  man  in  the  audience  quietly  remarked:  "If  he  goes  on 
throwin'  out  his  ballast  in  that  way,  the  Lord  only  knows  where 
he'll  land." 

Perhaps  I  can  assist  in  demonstrating  to-night  that  dryness  is 
a  pronounced  quality  of  the  champagne,  of  the  diners,  and  of 
these  opening  remarks.  I  have  partaken  in  a  very  conservative 


28  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

manner,  however,  of  that  beverage,  in  consequence  of  the  remark 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  once  made  about  it  when  he  arrived  at  City 
Point,  after  having  been  shaken  up  the  night  before  aboard  his 
boat  in  a  storm  on  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  complained  that  his 
stomach  was  still  suffering  from  certain  gastronomic  uncertain 
ties.  A  young  staff  officer,  who  was  generally  too  previous  on 
momentous  occasions,  now  saw  before  him  the  one  great  opportu 
nity  of  his  life,  and  rushed  up  to  Mr.  Lincoln  with  a  bottle  of 
champagne  and  said:  "This  is  the  cure  for  that  sort  of  an  ill, 
Mr.  President."  Said  the  President:  "No,  young  man,  I  have 
seen  too  many  fellows  seasick  ashore  from  drinking  that  very 
article." 

When  the  Italian  fisherman  puts  out  to  sea,  he  is  accustomed 
to  offer  up  a  prayer  for  strength,  because  the  sea  is  so  vast  and 
his  bark  is  so  small,  and  I  feel  like  entering  a  plea  for  strength 
to-night,  because  the  subject  which  you  have  assigned  to  me  is 
so  vast  and  my  ideas  are  so  few.  The  story  of  the  life  of  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  savors  more  of  romance  than  reality;  is  more  like  a 
fabled  tale  of  ancient  days  than  the  story  of  an  American  citizen 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  As  light  and  shade  produce  the  most 
attractive  effects  in  a  picture,  so  the  strange  contrasts,  the  sin 
gular  vicissitudes  in  the  life  of  our  martyred  President  surround 
him  with  an  interest  which  attaches  to  few  men  in  history.  Of 
humble  origin,  he  early  had  to  struggle  with  the  trials  of  mis 
fortune  and  to  learn  the  first  lessons  of  life  in  the  severe  school 
of  adversity.  He  sprang  from  that  class  which  he  always  alluded 
to  as  the  "plain  people."  He  always  possessed  an  abiding  confi 
dence  in  them;  he  always  retained  his  deep  hold  upon  their  af 
fections;  even  when  he  was  clothed  with  the  robes  of  a  master,  he 
forgot  not  that  lie  was  still  the  servant  of  the  people.  He  be 
lieved  that  the  government  was  made  for  the  people,  not  the  peo- 


ADDRESS  OF  GENERAL  HORACE  PORTER         29 

pie  for  the  government.  He  felt  that  true  Republicanism  is  a 
torch — the  more  it  is  shaken  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  the 
brighter  it  will  burn. 

He  was  transcendently  fit  to  be  the  first  great  successful  bearer 
of  the  progressive,  aggressive,  invincible  Eepublican  party. 

If,  in  the  days  of  his  power,  men  had  sneered  at  him  on  ac 
count  of  his  humble  origin,  he  might  well  have  said  to  them 
what  a  Marshal  of  France,  raised  from  the  ranks  of  Dukedom,  said 
to  the  haughty  Nobles  of  Vienna,  who  boasted  of  their  long  line 
of  descent,  when  they  refused  to  associate  with  him:  "I  am  an 
ancestor;  you  are  only  descendants." 

Abraham  Lincoln  possessed  in  a  marked  degree  that  most  un 
common  of  all  virtues,  common  sense.  With  him  there  was  no 
practicing  of  the  arts  of  the  demagogue;  no  posing  for  effect,  no 
attitudinizing  in  public;  no  mawkish  sentimentality;  no  indul 
gence  in  mock  heroics;  none  of  that  puppyism  so  often  bred  by 
power;  none  of  that  dogmatism  which  Johnson  said  was  only 
puppyism  grown  to  maturity.  He  sought  not  to  rise  in  a  chariot 
of  power,  the  golden  dust  from  whose  wheels  might  dazzle  and 
blind  his  followers.  He  preferred  to  trudge  along  on  foot,  so 
that  the  people  might  keep  abreast  with  him.  While  his  mind 
was  one  great  storehouse  of  facts  and  useful  information,  he  made 
no  pretense  to  knowledge  he  did  not  possess.  He  felt  like  Addi- 
son,  that  "pedantry  in  learning  is  like  hypocrisy  in  religion — 
a  form  of  knowledge  without  the  power  of  it."  He  had  nothing 
in  common  with  those  men  of  mental  malformation  who  are  edu 
cated  beyond  their  intellects. 

Tlie  names  of  two  Presidents  will  always  be  inseparably  as 
sociated  in  the  minds  of  Americans — Washington  and  Lincoln. 
And  yet,  from  the  manner  in  which  the  modern  historian  loves 
to  dwell  at  length  upon  trivial  incidents,  we  would  suppose  that 


3c  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

one  had  spent  his  entire  life  in  cutting  down  trees,  and  the  other 
in  splitting  them  up  into  rails.  These  men  differed  in  some  re 
spects.  Washington  could  not  tell  a  story.  Lincoln  always  could. 
Lincoln's  stories  possessed  the  true  geometrical  requisites  of  ex 
cellence.  They  were  never  too  long  and  never  too  broad.  He 
never  forgot  a  point.  A  sentinel,  who  was  pacing  near  a  camp- 
fire  while  Lincoln  was  visiting  the  field,  listening  to  the  stories 
he  told,  made  the  philosophical  remark  that  that  man  had  a 
mighty  powerful  memory  hut  an  awful  poor  forgettery.  He  did 
not  tell  a  story  for  the  sake  of  the  anecdote,  hut  to  point  a  moral, 
to  clinch  a  fact.  I  do  not  know  a  more  apt  illustration  than  that 
which  fell  from  his  lips  the  last  time  I  ever  heard  him  converse. 
We  were  discussing  the  subject  of  England's  assistance  to  the 
South,  and  how,  after  the  collapse  of  the  Confederacy,  England 
would  find  she  had  aided  it  but  little,  and  only  injured  herself. 
He  said,  "That  reminds  me  of  a  barber  in  Sangamon  County.  He 
had  just  gone  to  bed,  when  a  stranger  came  along  and  said 
he  must  be  shaved;  that  he  had  a  four  days'  beard  on  his  face  and 
was  going  to  a  ball,  and  that  beard  must  come  off.  Well,  the 
barber  reluctantly  got  up  and  dressed,  and  seated  the  man  in  a 
chair  with  a  back  so  low  that  every  time  he  bored  down  on  him 
he  came  near  dislocating  his  victim's  neck.  He  began  by  lather 
ing  his  face,  including  his  nose,  eyes  and  ears,  stropped  his  razor 
on  his  boot,  and  then  made  a  drive  at  the  man's  countenance  as 
if  he  had  practiced  mowing  in  a  stubble  field.  He  made  a  bold 
swath  across  the  right  cheek,  carrying  away  the  beard,  a  pimple, 
and  two  warts.  The  man  in  the  chair  ventured  the  remark,  'You 
appear  to  make  everything  level  as  you  go.'  Said  the  barber, 
'Yes,  and  if  this  handle  don't  break,  I  guess  I'll  get  away  with 
what  there  is  there.'  The  man's  cheeks  were  so  hollow  that  the 
barber  could  not  get  down  into  the  valleys  with  the  razor,  and  the 


ADDRESS  OF  GENERAL  HORACE  PORTER         31 

ingenious  idea  occurred  to  him  to  stick  his  finger  in  the  man's 
mouth  and  press  out  the  cheeks.  Finally  he  cut  clear  through 
the  cheek  and  into  his  own  finger.  He  pulled  the  finger  out  of 
the  man's  mouth,  snapped  the  blood  oft7  it,  glared  at  him  and 
said,  'There,  you  lanterned- jawed  cuss,  you've  made  me  cut  my 
finger/ 

"Now,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  "England  will  find  that  she  has  got 
the  South  into  a  pretty  bad  scrape  by  trying  to  administer  to  her, 
and  in  the  end  she  will  find  she  has  only  cut  her  own  finger." 

But  his  heart  was  not  always  attuned  to  mirth,  its  chords 
were  often  set  to  strains  of  sadness.  The  slaughter  in  the  field; 
the  depletion  in  the  treasury;  the  work  of  traitors  in  rear  as 
well  as  in  front;  the  foreign  complications  which  arose  were 
sometimes  so  overwhelming  that  his  great  soul  seemed  to  melt. 
Men  slandered  and  reviled  him;  they  could  not  understand  him. 
His  wit  was  too  keen;  his  logic  too  subtle;  his  statesmanship  too 
advanced.  It  passed  their  understanding.  He  realized  that  "re 
proach  is  a  concomitant  to  greatness  as  satire  and  invective  were 
an  essential  part  of  a  Roman  triumph."  He  learned  that  in  pub 
lic  life  all  hours  wound — the  last  one  kills.  But  throughout  these 
periods  of  gloom  he  never  lost  the  courage  of  his  convictions;  he 
never  took  counsel  of  his  fears.  When  hope  was  fading,  when 
courage  was  failing,  when  he  was  surrounded  on  all  sides  by 
doubting  Thomases,  by  unbelieving  Saracens,  by  discontented 
Catilines,  as  the  Danes  destroyed  the  hearing  of  the  war  horses  in 
order  that  they  might  not  be  aifrighted  by  the  din  of  battle,  so 
Abraham  Lincoln  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  all  doubts  and  despondency, 
and  exhibited  an  unwavering  and  unbounded  faith  in  the  jus 
tice  of  the  cause  and  the  integrity  of  the  Union.  His  was  a  faith 
which  saw  a  bow  of  promise  in  every  storm  cloud;  which  saw  in 
the  discords  of  the  present  the  harmonies  of  the  future;  a  faith 


32  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

that  can  be  likened  only  unto  the  faith  of  the  Christian  in  his 
God. 

Men  learn  little  in  this  world  from  precept;  they  learn  much 
from  example.  "The  best  teachers  of  humanity  are  the  lives  of 
great  men."  It  is  said  that  for  300  years  after  the  battle  of  Ther 
mopylae,  every  child  in  the  public  schools  of  Greece  was  re 
quired  to  recite  from  memory  each  day  the  names  of  the  three 
hundred  immortal  martyrs  that  fell  in  the  defense  of  that  Pass. 
It  would  be  a  crowning  triumph  in  patriotic  education,  if  every 
school  child  in  America  could  be  taught  each  day  to  contem 
plate  the  grand  character  and  utter  the  inspiring  name  of  Abra 
ham  Lincoln.  Singular  Man!  No  one  can  lessen  the  measure  of 
his  fame;  no  one  can  pluck  a  single  laurel  from  his  brow.  Mar 
velous  man!  In  all  the  annals  of  history,  we  fail  to  find  another 
whose  life  was  so  peaceful,  whose  nature  was  so  gentle,  and  yet 
who  was  called  upon  to  marshal  the  armed  hosts  of  an  aroused 
people;  to  direct  and  control  the  uprising  of  an  entire  nation, 
and  for  four  long  years  to  conduct  a  fierce,  a  bloody,  a  relentless 
fratricidal  war.  In  the  annals  of  all  history,  we  fail  to  find  an 
other  whose  training  was  of  the  cabinet,  not  the  camp,  yet  who 
died  a  more  heroic  death. 

Seldom  has  it  fallen  to  the  lot  of  man  to  strike  the  shackles 
from  the  limbs  of  bondmen,  and  proclaim  liberty  to  a  race  by  a 
single  stroke  of  the  pen.  Seldom  has  it  fallen  to  the  lot  of  man 
to  die  the  death  of  an  honored  martyr  with  his  robes  of  office 
still  about  him,  with  his  laurels  fresh  upon  his  brow,  at  the  mo 
ment  of  the  restoration  of  his  country  to  peace  within  her  borders 
and  to  peace  with  all  the  world. 

We  buried  him,  not  in  Roman  Pantheon;  not  in  a  domed  St. 
Paul's;  not  in  an  historic  Westminster.  We  gave  him  still  nobler 
sepulchre.  We  laid  him  to  rest  in  the  bosom  of  the  soil  his  efforts 


ADDRESS  OF  GENERAL  HORACE  PORTER         33 

had  saved.  That  tomb  shall  henceforth  be  the  true  Mecca  of  all 
true  sons  of  the  Republic;  future  ages  will  pause  to  read  the  in 
scription  on  its  portals,  and  the  prayers  and  the  praises  of  a  re 
deemed  and  regenerated  people  will  rise  from  that  grave  as  in 
cense  rises  from  holy  places,  pointing  out  even  to  the  angels  in 
heaven  where  rest  the  ashes  of  him  who  had  filled  to  the  very 
full  the  largest  measure  of  human  greatness. 

He  has  passed  from  our  view.  We  shall  not  meet  him  again  till 
he  stands  forth  to  answer  to  his  name  at  rollcall,  when  the  great 
of  earth  are  summoned  on  the  morning  of  the  last  great  reveille. 
Till  then,  farewell,  gentlest  of  all  spirits,  noblest  of  all  hearts! 
A  child's  simplicity  was  mingled  with  the  majestic  grandeur  of 
your  nature.  You  have  handed  down  unto  a  grateful  people  the 
richest  legacy  which  man  can  leave  to  man — the  memory  of  a 
good  name,  the  inheritance  of  a  great  example ! 


ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1890 


Address  of 
HON.  SHELBY  M.  CULLOM 


SHELBY  MOORE  CULLOM 

Senator  Cullom  was  born  in  Wayne  Co.,  Ky.,  1829. 
After  an  academic  education  he  commenced  the  practice 
of  law  at  Springfield,  111.  He  served  in  the  Illinois 
Legislature,  1856,  1860-61,  1872,  1873-4.  He  was  a 
member  of  Congress,  1865-71;  Governor  of  the  State  of 
Illinois  1876-83,  and  U.  S.  Senator  from  Illinois  since 
1883. 


ADDRESS  OF 

HON.  SHELBY   M.   CULLOM 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Republican  Club  of  the 
City  of  New  York:  I  esteem  it  a  great  honor  to  be  present  on  this 
occasion,  and  a  still  greater  honor  to  be  called  upon  to  respond  to 
the  announcement  just  made  by  your  president. 

How  true  the  utterance  of  the  matchless  Shakespeare  of  the 
Old  World  when  applied  to  immortal  Lincoln  of  the  New!  "The 
elements  were  so  mixed  in  him,  that  Nature  might  stand  up  and  say 
to  all  the  world,  'This  is  a  man.' ':  His  life  was  gentle,  pure, 
noble,  and  courageous;  and  from  his  early  manhood  all  who  knew 
him  were  ready  to  say  of  him,  "This  is  a  man."  The  name  of 
Lincoln,  Mr.  President  and  gentlemen,  has  been  to  me  as  a  house 
hold  word  from  my  very  earliest  recollection.  He  was  the  friend 
of  my  father  in  my  early  boyhood,  and  I  am  proud  to  believe 
that  he  was  my  friend  for  many  years  before  his  death.  I  knew 
him  somewhat  in  the  sacred  circle  of  his  family.  I  knew  him  in 
the  ordinary  walks  of  life.  I  knew  him  as  a  practising  lawyer 
at  the  bar.  I  knew  him  at  the  hustings  as  a  public  speaker  and 
debater.  I  knew  him  as  President  of  the  United  States,  in  that 
period  in  our  history  when  men's  souls  were  tried,  and  when  the 
life  of  our  nation  seemed  to  be  suspended  as  by  a  thread.  In  the 
home  circle  he  was  gentle,  affectionate,  and  true.  In  the  ordinary 
walks  of  life  he  was  plain,  simple,  and  generous;  a  perfect  type, 
so  far  as  men  can  be,  of  all  that  makes  a  worthy  citizen  of  a 


38  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

great  Republic,  At  the  bar  he  was  conscientious,  fair,  powerful, 
and  he  seldom  failed  to  gain  his  cause  against  the  most  able 
legal  antagonists. 

On  the  platform  of  debate  he  had  few,  if  any,  equals  in  this 
or  any  other  country. 

Mr.  President,  the  world  has  had  few  such  men  as  Abraham 
Lincoln.  He  was  of  gentle  nature,  great  in  heart,  in  head,  and 
in  deed.  As  a  political  leader  he  was  actuated  in  his  movements 
by  strong  convictions  of  duty,  and  had  great  power  in  convincing 
people  of  the  righteousness  of  his  cause.  No  man  could  stand  in 
his  presence  and  hear  him  without  feeling  sure  of  the  honesty 
of  his  purposes  and  declarations,  or  of  the  strength  of  his  argu 
ments  in  behalf  of  whatever  cause  he  championed.  I  have  heard 
him  often.  I  heard  several  of  the  famous  debates  between  him 
and  the  great  Douglas.  I  heard  his  great  speech  in  which  he 
uttered,  I  may  say,  that  immortal  declaration,  that  a  house  di 
vided  against  itself  cannot  stand.  It  must  be  all  one  thing  or 
the  other;  and  I  do  not  believe  that  an  address  was  ever  delivered 
in  this  country  that  produced  a  more  profound  and  lasting  impres 
sion  upon  the  minds  of  the  people  of  the  country  than  this. 

As  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  nation,  he  was  wise  and  prudent. 
He  lived  to  witness  that  foul  blot  of  slavery,  which  gave  the  lie 
to  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  swept  away.  He  was  the 
savior  of  the  Union  and  the  liberator  by  his  own  hand  of  four 
millions  of  slaves. 

Great-hearted  patriot,  and  martyr  to  the  cause  of  union  and 
liberty,  how  we  honor  your  name  and  your  memory  to-night!  You 
fought  a  good  fight.  You  finished  your  work.  The  world  is  bet 
ter  for  your  having  lived  in  it,  and  it  will  call  you  blessed  as 
long  as  the  love  of  liberty  shall  dwell  in  the  soul  of  humanity, 
which  will  be  as  long  as  time  shall  last  upon  the  earth. 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  SHELBY  M.  CULLOM          39 

Mr.  President,  if  I  may  be  allowed  to  say  it,  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  given  to  the  nation  by  Illinois.  It  seems  to  me  but  yester 
day  that  I  felt  the  warm  grasp  of  his  hand,  and  saw  him  leave 
his  home  at  the  capital  of  his  state,  where  I  have  the  honor  of 
residing,  to  enter  upon  a  larger  field  of  usefulness  at  the  capital 
of  the  nation,  where  he  won  immortality  and  died  with  a  martyr's 
crown  of  glory  upon  his  brow. 

Never  was  a  nobler  man  born  of  woman,  and  never  throbbed  a 
purer  heart  in  human  breast.  The  distinguished  of  the  Old  World, 
proud  of  their  claims  of  long  descent,  may  sneer  at  his  humble 
birth;  but,  in  my  estimation,  he  was  one  of  the  greatest  of  men. 

I  do  not  know,  fellow-citizens,  but  you  may  think  me  too  partial 
toward  that  great  man;  but  I  have  read  his  speeches,  have  seen 
him  in  the  common  walks  of  life,  walked  with  him,  as  my  friend 
here  said,  upon  the  streets,  heard  him  talked  about  ever  since  I 
was  ten  years  old,  and  I  have  deliberately  come  to  the  conclu 
sion  that  no  man  has  ever  existed  on  the  American  continent 
superior  to  Abraham  Lincoln. 

By  his  consummate  statesmanship  he  saved  the  republic  from 
the  evils  of  anarchy,  and  with  self-denying  patriotism  refused 
to  assume  almost  regal  power  when  it  was  within  his  reach.  He 
educated  public  opinion  until  it  became  ready  to  endorse  what 
he  knew  to  be  right,  and  what  wise  statesmanship  demanded  at 
his  hands. 

Fellow-citizens,  if  you  will  think  of  his  career  as  Chief  Magis 
trate  of  the  nation  in  that  period  of  national  peril,  you  will 
agree  with  me  that  his  course  and  wisdom  were  such  as  to  lead 
the  people,  and  teach  them  as  though  he  taught  them  not,  and 
then  he  did  what  the  country  was  ready  to  have  done. 

While  Abraham  Lincoln  had  not  the  advantages  of  a  scholastic 
education,  yet  he  fully  appreciated  and  understood  the  beautiful 


40  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

in  sentiment  and  diction,  and  no  man  has  uttered  more  elegant 
language  and  tender  words,  touching  the  hearts  of  humanity, 
than  he.  To  me  his  utterances  were  both  powerful  and  elegant, 
and  I  would  rather  be  the  author  of  that  great  paper  by  which 
he  gave  freedom  to  four  millions  of  slaves  than  be  the  author 
of  the  poems  of  Homer  or  the  plays  of  Shakespeare.  He  was  the 
savior  of  the  Union,  but  though  he  did  live  to  see  the  power  of  the 
Rebellion  broken,  he  did  not  live  to  see  the  authority  of  the 
Union  established  in  all  the  rebellious  States.  He  was  per 
mitted  to  go  up  into  Mount  Nebo  and  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the 
promised  land  of  the  restored  Union,  but  his  weary  feet  were  not 
allowed  to  cross  the  border  that  separated  it  from  the  wilderness 
of  Civil  War.  In  the  very  moment  of  victory  he  was  robbed  of 
life  by  the  cruel  hand  of  a  traitorous  assassin,  and  his  body  was 
brought  back  amid  the  lamentations  of  a  whole  nation — even  his 
foes  giving  to  his  merit  the  meed  of  tears — to  find  its  last  resting 
place  in  the  soil  of  Illinois.  As  I  gazed  for  the  last  time  upon 
his  face  on  the  solemn  occasion,  sad  and  gentle  in  death  as  it  had 
been  in  life,  I  thanked  God  that  the  good  that  he  had  done  would 
live  after  him  and  give  his  name  in  honor  to  story  and  to  song. 

It  is  said  that  the  story  of  every  human  life,  if  rightly  told, 
may  be  a  useful  lesson  to  those  who  survive.  There  are  none 
whose  lives  teach  to  Americans  or  to  the  world  a  grander  or  more 
profitable  lesson  than  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  study  of 
his  life  leads  to  private  and  public  virtue;  to  correct  ideas  of  our 
relations  to  each  other;  and  to  moral  courage  to  stand  by  our 
convictions. 

Lincoln  was  a  child  of  Providence,  raised  up  in  a  period  in  our 
history  when  there  was  need  of  such  a  man.  A  pioneer  raised  in 
a  cabin,  laboring  with  his  hands,  acquainted  with  the  woods  and 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  SHELBY  M.  CULLOM          41 

fields,  he  communed  with  nature  in  all  its  beauty  and  grandeur 
as  it  voiced  itself  to  the  quiet  man  of  destiny.  He  was  a  martyr 
to  the  cause  of  union  and  liberty,  a  noble  victim  to  duty. 

To  repeat  the  sentiment  embodied  in  the  announcement  of  the 
President,  "The  fight  must  go  on,"  and  I  am  glad  to  the  very  bot 
tom  of  my  heart  that  I  have  the  honor  of  standing  in  the  presence 
of  a  great  assembly  of  intelligent,  earnest  Republicans,  who  will 
join  in  that  sentiment  when  I  say  that  the  fight  must  go  on.  "The 
cause  of  liberty  must  not  be  surrendered  at  the  end  of  one  or  even 
one  hundred  defeats."  Such  words  uttered  by  Lincoln,  gave  evi 
dence  of  his  convictions  to  duty.  "Yes,"  said  he,  "I  will  speak 
for  freedom  against  slavery  so  long  as  the  Constitution  of  our 
country  guarantees  free  speech;  until  everywhere  in  this  broad 
land  the  sun  shall  shine,  the  wind  shall  blow,  and  the  rain  shall 
fall  upon  no  man  who  goes  forth  to  unrequited  toil." 

Mr.  President  and  gentlemen,  the  fight  must  go  on  in  favor 
of  liberty  and  justice  to  the  people  of  all  classes,  colors,  and  con 
ditions  in  our  country  until  every  man  in  all  this  broad  land 
shall  stand  equal  before  the  law,  in  civil  and  political  rights,  equal 
in  fact  and  equal  in  law,  with  no  system  of  intimidation  at  elec 
tions,  or  fraudulent  counting  when  the  polls  are  closed. 

The  fight  must  go  on,  and  no  surrender  at  the  end  of  one  or 
one  hundred  defeats,  until  honest  elections  are  secured  every 
where  in  this  country. 

The  fight  must  go  on  until  merciless  monopolists  are  subor 
dinated,  and  the  interests  of  the  great  body  of  the  people  are 
carefully  regarded. 

The  fight  must  go  on  until  trusts  and  combinations,  prompted 
by  greed  and  inordinate  avarice,  shall  be  broken  up. 


42  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

The  fight  must  go  on  until  the  mission  of  the  Republican  party, 
founded  by  Lincoln  and  his  compeers,  shall  have  been  fully  ac 
complished  in  the  destruction  of  all  barriers  to  perfect  equality 
in  the  civil  and  political  rights  of  all  the  people  of  the  country. 

Gentlemen,  how  glorious  the  results  of  the  great  culminating 
struggle  in  which  Lincoln  was  the  mighty  leader  on  the  side  of 
liberty!  Did  you  ever  reflect  upon  the  consequences  of  a  divided 
Union?  Thanks  to  Lincoln,  the  great  leader;  and  to  that  wise 
statesman,  William  H.  Seward  of  New  York,  another  great  leader 
of  the  Republican  party;  and  to  my  distinguished  friend — and  I 
am  proud  to  have  him  here  in  your  presence  to-night — the  gallant 
pathfinder  and  hero  of  the  late  war,  General  Fremont;  and  to 
Grant,  that  silent  man;  and  to  Sherman;  and  to  Sheridan  and 
Thomas;  and  to  Hancock,  the  gallant  leader;  and  to  my  dearest 
friend  of  latter  days,  the  gallant  John  A.  Logan ;  and  to  the  great 
army  of  patriots  whom  they  and  others  commanded  in  the  strug 
gle  for  national  life,  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  was  not  ac 
complished. 

How  we  are  blessed  as  a  nation !  No  standing  army  worth  the 
name.  No  royal  dynasty  in  this  country.  Fellow-citizens,  in  a 
little  while  every  nation  on  the  American  continent,  I  trust,  will 
be  in  full  sympathy  with  each  other,  from  the  frozen  regions  of 
the  North  to  the  lower  peninsula  of  the  South.  The  people  sov 
ereign.  No  danger  from  foreign  foe.  Surrounded  by  the  two 
oceans,  the  lakes,  and  the  gulf.  What  an  opportunity  to  build 
up  the  greatest  nation  the  world  ever  saw ! 

A  career  of  unprecedented  glory  awaits  this  nation.  Slavery 
gone.  Secession  banished,  I  trust  for  all  time.  No  gloomy  clouds 
to  obscure  the  light.  "Let  the  mystic  chords  of  memory  swell 
the  chorus  of  the  Union,  when  again  touched,  as  surely  they 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  SHELBY  M.  CULLOM         43 

will  be,  by  the  better  angels  of  our  nature,"  and  let  us  as  citizens 
study  and  imitate  the  life  and  character  of  Lincoln,  in  its  devo 
tion  to  liberty,  in  the  hope  that  the  great  principle  for  which 
Lincoln  lived  and  died  shall  preserve  this  country  as  the  purest 
and  best  country  on  the  face  of  the  globe. 


THE  FIFTH 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNEE 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1891 


Address  of 
REV.  H.  L.  WAYLAND,  D.D. 


HEMAN  LINCOLN  WAYLAND,  D.D. 
Dr.  Wayland  was  a  well  known  clergyman,  educator 
and  editor.  He  was  born  in  Providence,  R.  I.,  1830,  and 
graduated  from  Brown  University  in  1849.  The  fol 
lowing  year  he  studied  at  Newton  Theological  Institute, 
and  in  1854  entered  the  Baptist  ministry.  His  first 
pastorate  was  the  Main  Street  Baptist  Church,  at 
Worcester,  Mass.  He  enlisted  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
Civil  War,  and  served  three  years  as  chaplain  of  the 
Seventh  Connecticut  Volunteers.  He  became  Professor 
of  Rhetoric  and  Logic  at  Kalamazoo  College,  and  later, 
president  of  Franklin  College.  From  1872-94  he  was 
editor  of  the  "National  Baptist"  of  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
He  was  also  engaged  in  other  editorial  work  and  was 
an  extensive  magazine  contributor  on  sociological  and 
educational  topics.  He  was  an  ardent  advocate  of  Civil 
Service  reform,  and  an  able  public  speaker.  He  died 
in  1898. 


ADDRESS  OF 

REV.  H.  L.  WAYLAND,  D.D. 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Republican  Club :  You  have 
assigned  me  a  difficult  task.  You  bid  me  speak  of  the  virtues  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  debt  due  him  from  posterity;  and  I  sup 
pose  that  you  expect  me  to  be  through  before  the  rising  of  the 
sun.  Now,  if  you  had  asked  me  to  speak  of  the  private  and  civic 
virtues  of  Aaron  Burr,  if  you  had  bidden  me  speak  of  the  iron 
resolution  and  uncalculating  patriotism  of  James  Buchanan,  of 
the  nobleness  and  magnanimity  of  the  sympathy  extended  us  in 
our  hour  of  trial  by  the  nations  of  the  Old  World,  I  could  have 
finished  the  subject  far  within  fifteen  minutes,  and  have  had 
twenty  minutes  to  spare ! 

Was  Abraham  Lincoln  a  great  man?  History  is  very  apt  to 
ask  about  a  man,  "What  did  he  do?"  As  the  executive  head  of 
the  nation  and  as  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy, 
he  carried  the  country  through  the  most  gigantic  war  of  modern 
times,  to  the  achievement  of  a  complete  and  unsurpassed  victory. 
He  restored  the  union  of  the  states,  and  re-established  the  na 
tional  authority.  He  annihilated  slavery,  which  had  been 
through  all  history,  our  calamity  and  curse  and  shame  and  menace. 

And  his  work  was  marred  by  no  drawback.  Napoleon,  at  the 
close  of  a  career  of  unparalleled  splendor,  left  his  country  hu 
miliated,  prostrate.  Oliver  Cromwell  died;  and  the  majestic  work 
which  he  had  done  was  marred,  and  a  wave  of  reaction  swept 


48  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

over  the  landmarks  of  liberty  which  he  had  erected.  But,  in 
Lincoln's  own  words,  "When  peace  came,  it  came  to  stay";  and 
with  it  came  and  stayed  liberty,  and  every  blessing  for  which 
the  war  was  waged.  The  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  was 
never  revoked. 

Was  he  a  great  man?  It  has  been  the  happy  lot  of  some  men 
to  achieve  a  great  work  without  having  to  contend  with  obstacles. 
What  did  he  overcome  ?  How  truly  did  he  say,  when  thirty  years 
ago  yesterday,  amid  the  tears  and  prayers  of  his  neighbors,  he 
left  the  home  to  which  he  was  to  return  four  years  later,  a  war 
rior  who  died  upon  the  field  of  victory — how  truly  and  modestly 
did  he  say,  "I  leave  you  on  an  errand  of  national  importance, 
attended  as  you  are  aware,  with  considerable  difficulties."  Great 
need  had  he  to  say  to  his  neighbors,  "I  hope  you  will  all  pray 
that  I  may  receive  that  divine  assistance,  without  which  I  can 
not  succeed,  but  with  which  success  is  certain."  Never  did  a 
man  enter  upon  so  great  a  work,  attended  with  obstacles  so  por 
tentous.  All  through  the  months  following  his  election,  the 
enemies  of  the  country  had  their  way;  the  then  President  of  the 
United  States  served,  as  a  former  Governer  of  Illinois  said,  "as 
a  bread  and  milk  poultice  to  bring  the  rebellion  to  a  head."  And 
Lincoln's  hands  were  tied.  At  last  when  he  took  the  oath,  what 
did  he  find?  The  situation  was  described  in  a  sort  of  parable 
by  a  letter  which  Lincoln  himself  wrote  years  before.  A  business 
house  in  the  East  had  written  asking  about  the  resources  of  Mr. 
Brown,  with  whom  they  had  some  dealings.  Mr.  Lincoln  replied: 

"I  am  well  acquainted  with  Mr.  Brown,  and  know  his  circum 
stances.  First  of  all,  he  has  a  wife  and  baby;  together  they 
ought  to  be  worth  $50,000  to  any  man.  Secondly,  he  has  an 
office  in  which  there  is  a  table  worth  $1.50  and  three  chairs 


ADDRESS  OF  REV.  H.  L.  WAYLAND,  D.D.  49 

worth,  say  $1.     Last  of  all,  there  is  in  one  corner  a  large  rat-hole, 
which  will  bear  looking  into. 

"Respectfully  yours, 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

When  he  came  to  take  the  inventory  of  the  national  assets 
he  found  in  many  a  home  mothers,  children,  affections,  hopes,  not 
to  be  counted  by  dollars.  He  found  in  the  national  treasury 
a  table  worth  $1.50  and  three  chairs  worth  $1,  which  Floyd  and 
Cobb  had  not  carried  away — because  they  were  screwed  to  the 
floor;  and  he  found  on  the  south  side  of  the  national  premises, 
a  large  rat  hole,  which,  indeed,  would  bear  looking  into,  for  down 
it  had  vanished  prosperity,  honor,  justice,  and  the  national  ex 
istence  itself  was  just  disappearing,  when  Abraham  Lincoln  res 
cued  it;  though  strange  to  say,  he  was  criticised  because  he  grasped 
it  by  the  hair  of  its  head. 

He,  a  country  lawyer,  found  himself  called  upon  to  create  and 
command  an  army  and  navy,  to  reorganize  the  national  service 
which  had  become  honeycombed  with  treason.  He  had  to  con 
front  open  enemies  with  steadfast  opposition,  to  countermine  the 
plots  of  secret  foes,  and  to  unite  and  to  re-animate  the  often 
discouraged  friends  of  liberty.  He  had  to  count  upon  the  stead 
fast  opposition  of  the  classes  in  the  Old  World,  and  to  reckon 
as  his  friends,  less  than  half  a  dozen  members  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  the  plain  toiling  people,  like  the  weavers  of  Lan 
cashire,  who,  in  the  agonies  of  the  cotton  famine,  said  to  the 
Government,  "We  will  clem  a  bit  longer;  but  you  shall  not  array 
Great  Britain  against  our  brothers  in  America,  and  against  him, 
their  chief."  A  few  years  ago,  when  spending  a  Sunday  in  Lan 
cashire,  I  could  not  resist  the  impulse  to  thank  these  heroic  men 
for  their  friendship  in  our  hours  of  agony ;  I  felt  that  I  could  stoop 


50  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

and  kiss  the  ground  on  which  those  men  stood.  He  had  to  con 
tend  in  the  Arena  of  International  Law  with  the  veteran  pub 
licists  of  England  and  France;  and,  while  walking,  to  use  his 
own  illustration,  like  Blondin,  upon  a  wire  across  an  unfathom 
able  abyss,  he  had  to  listen  to  the  angry  and  querulous  complaints 
of  those  who  would  urge  him  forward  and  of  those  who  would 
hold  him  back. 

We  criticize  him  now  because  of  the  mistakes  and  the  delays. 
We  could  achieve  the  same  results  at  much  less  cost,  in  much  less 
time.  Perhaps,  yes;  because  he  broke  out  the  path.  As  well 
might  the  summer  tourist  who  crosses  the  ocean  inside  of  six 
days,  criticize  Columbus  for  the  tediousness  and  deviousness  of 
his  voyage,  or  the  men  of  the  Mayflower,  because  they  were 
ninety  days  from  the  old  Plymouth  to  the  new. 

It  demands  much  more  greatness  to  be  the  constitutional  ruler 
of  a  free  nation  in  time  of  peril  than  to  be  an  absolute  monarch. 
The  autocrat  consults  no  one.  He  simply  says:  "So  I  will;  so  I 
order,"  as  the  Czar  of  the  Eussias  marked  out  the  course  of  the 
railroad  from  St.  Petersburg  to  Moscow,  by  laying  down  a  ruler 
and  drawing  a  straight  line  on  the  map.  That  required  no 
genius,  no  labor;  an  idiot  could  have  done  it.  The  labor,  the 
ability  was  demanded  of  the  engineers  who  followed.  The  mag 
istrate  of  a  free  state  has  to  consult  public  opinion.  He  must 
take,  not  the  course  that  is  ideally  the  best,  but  the  one  that 
will  command  the  assent  and  the  co-operation  of  the  legislature, 
and  of  the  people  who  are  behind  both  ruler  and  congress.  He 
must  argue,  he  must  explain,  he  must  pacify,  he  must  win;  and 
all  this  often  at  the  expense  of  that  promptness  and  secrecy 
which  is  the  life  and  soul  of  success  in  war.  Nowhere  does  the 
greatness  of  Mr.  Lincoln  more  plainly  appear  than  in  the  blended 


ADDRESS  OF  REV.  H.  L.  WAYLAND,  D.D.  51 

wisdom,  patience,,  cheerfulness,  kindliness,  with  which  he  gained 
those  whose  co-operation  was  a  condition  of  victory. 

Was  he  great,  judged  by  what  he  said?  His  speeches  and 
writings  were  the  embodiment  of  compact  reasoning,  expressed 
with  homely  sense,  inspired  by  humanity,  radiant  with  patriot 
ism.  Is  not  he  a  great  man  who  says  that  which  no  one  has 
ever  said  before,  but  which,  the  moment  it  is  said,  everyone  rec 
ognizes  as  an  eternal  verity?  No  one  had  said,  "If  slavery  is 
not  wrong,  then  nothing  is  wrong";  but  when  he  said  it,  every 
one  recognized  it  as  an  axiom.  If  slavery  is  not  wrong,  then  the 
words  "right"  and  "wrong"  cease  to  have  any  meaning.  His 
words  are  a  lesson  to  every  young  man,  teaching  that  the  secret 
of  great  speech  is,  to  have  yielded  one's  self  to  great  impulses. 
He  was  not  often  mistaken;  but  certainly  he  erred  when,  in  the 
immortal  address  at  Gettysburg,  he  said,  "The  world  will  little 
note  nor  long  remember  what  we  say  here."  So  long  as  men  re 
member  those  immortal  three  days  of  July;  so  long  as  history 
records  that  there  the  rebellion  reached  its  high-water  mark,  and 
that  Gettysburg  made  Appomattox;  so  long  as  men  shall  go  on  a 
sacred  pilgrimage  to  Bound  Top  and  Devil's  Den,  to  the  grove 
where  Reynolds  fell,  and  to  the  slope  up  which  Pickett  made  his 
charge  (glorious,  but  for  the  cause),  so  long  shall  men  remember 
every  word  which  lie  spoke,  standing  under  the  November  sky 
of  1863,  words  in  which  human  speech  makes  a  near  approach 
to  perfection;  so  long  men  will  "'highly  resolve  that  government 
of  the  people,  by  the  people  and  for  the  people,  shall  not  perish 
from  the  earth." 

The  great  historic  party,  which  in  I860  placed  at  the  head 
of  its  column  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  beside  him  the  illustrious 
man  who  is  your  guest  this  evening,  the  party  which  has  achieved 
for  the  Republic  such  great  and  beneficent  victories  as  were  never 


52  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

achieved  by  any  other  party,  might  well  take  as  its  platform 
through  all  coming  time  the  sentiments  and  utterances  of  Lin 
coln,  adapted  to  the  ever  varying  demands  of  the  hour. 

Of  his  greatness,  we  can  argue  from  what  he  was.  Single  in 
aim,  unselfish,  patient,  cheerful,  not  seeking  personal  ends,  doing 
things  most  disagreeable  to  himself  because  he  thought  they  were 
for  the  welfare  of  the  country;  appointing  men  to  high  station 
who  were  personally  repugnant  to  him,  because  he  thought  the 
popular  voice  demanded  it;  sagacious,  honestly  shrewd,  far- 
sighted,  almost  unerring  in  his  judgment  of  events  and  of  men — 
his  character  was  a  great  part  of  the  strength  of  the  national 
cause,  was  another  army  re-enforcing  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
If  he  had  shown  in  the  smallest  degree  petulance,  avarice,  fraud, 
personal  ambition,  it  would  have  been  a  greater  calamity  than 
ten  defeats  like  Chancellorsville.  The  concentration  of  effort,  the 
unity  of  purpose,  which,  under  a  monarchy,  would  have  been  se 
cured  by  force,  came  to  him  solely  through  the  confidence  which 
gradually  he  won.  "I  have  seen,"  says  the  most  brilliant  of 
American  essayists,  "I  have  seen  the  wisest  statesman  and  most 
pregnant  speaker  of  our  generation,  a  man  of  humble  birth  and 
ungainly  manners,  of  little  culture  beyond  what  his  own  genius 
supplied,  become  more  absolute  in  power  than  any  monarch  of 
modern  times  through  the  reverence  of  his  countrymen  for  his 
honesty,  his  wisdom,  his  sincerity,  his  faith  in  God  and  man,  and 
the  nobly  humane  simplicity  of  his  character." 

He  had  a  wise  generosity  toward  his  lieutenants.  You  remem 
ber  that  Louis  XIV  stayed  safely  in  his  palace  while  a  siege  was 
being  carried  on,  until  the  general  reported  to  him  that  it  was 
absolutely  certain  that  the  beleaguered  city  must  fall  within  a  cer 
tain  time;  and  then  the  Grand  Monarch  would  set  out  in  state 
for  the  camp,  and  would  arrive  just  in  time  to  receive  the  surren- 


ADDRESS  OF  REV.  H.  L.  WAYLAND,  D.D.  53 

dered  keys ;  and  his  flatterers  said,  "Turenne  failed  sometimes,  and 
Luxembourg  sometimes;  but  victory  always  waits  upon  the  steps 
of  His  Sacred  Majesty."  And  so  he  pocketed  the  glory,  which  of 
right  belonged  to  the  planning  general  and  the  toiling  soldier. 
But  never  a  man  gave  more  generous  tribute  of  praise  than  Lin 
coln  bestowed  upon  every  one  who  was  enlisted  in  the  national 
cause;  and  so,  like  begetting  like,  it  came  about  that  never  ruler 
had  more  noble  and  uncalculating  devotion  than  he  from  the 
great-souled  army,  and  especially  from  those  two  unparalleled 
leaders,  one  of  whom,  five  years  ago  last  August,  was  borne  with 
more  than  royal  honors  to  his  grave  in  the  metropolis  which  he 
loved.  The  other — how  can  I  trust  myself  to  speak  of  him? — 
peerless  captain,  unsullied  patriot,  a  thunderbolt  on  the  field  of 
battle,  in  peace  the  gentlest  of  men,  the  most  loving  of  friends, 
laden  with  the  gratitude,  the  reverence,  the  love  of  a  nation,  the 
first  citizen  of  the  republic,  lingers  between  life  and  death, 
ready,  when  the  bugle  sounds  the  recall  to  join  the  army  of  the 
immortals.  May  a  kindly  Providence  still  spare  him  to  us  and 
lengthen  out  the  golden  sunset  of  his  honored  day. 

It  seems  to  be  a  demand  of  human  nature  that  every  great 
cause  shall  somewhat  incarnate  itself  in  a  person  and  a  name ;  and 
so  the  name  of  Lincoln  came  to  be,  to  America,  and  to  all  the 
world,  the  rallying  cry,  the  embodiment  of  the  idea  of  Liberty  and 
Union.  Those  who  sneeringly  spoke  of  the  Boys  in  Blue  as  "Lin 
coln's  hirelings,"  spoke  more  wisely  than  they  knew.  "Hirelings" 
they  were  not;  but  they  were  "Lincoln's"  just  as  truly  as  the 
best  soldiers  that  ever  trod  the  soil  of  Great  Britain  were  "Crom 
well's"  Ironsides. 

Lincoln  was  great  in  that  he  knew  his  bounds,  and  attempted 
nothing  which  would  lead  to  ruin. 

I  cannot  call  a  man  great  who  is  not  a  whole  man.    Napoleon, 


54  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

colossal  upon  the  intellectual  side,  had  not  even  the  rudimentary 
organs  of  a  moral  nature.  He  was  a  great  half-man.  A  semi 
circle  is  not  a  circle,  even  though  it  have  a  radius  of  a  million 
miles.  In  our  hero  the  soul  matched  the  intellect. 

He  was  a  leader,  always  in  front,  yet  never  so  far  in  advance 
as  to  lose  his  hold  upon  those  who  followed.  He  did  not,  like  a 
too  progressive  locomotive,  dash  ahead  and  break  the  coupling  and 
leave  the  train  stalled  and  helpless. 

His  vast  common  sense  gave  him  the  grasp  of  principles  and 
made  him  a  master,  alike  in  diplomacy  and  in  war,  in  everything 
that  did  not  depend  upon  arbitrary  technicalities. 

He  was  born  great,  and  he  became  great.  He  was  great  when, 
at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  seeing  in  the  Crescent  City,  a  slave 
woman  flogged,  he,  an  obscure  flat-boatman  on  the  Mississippi, 
said,  "If  ever  I  get  a  chance  at  that  institution,  I  will  hit  it  hard." 
He  was  great  when  he  was  hardly  known  beyond  Sangamon 
County.  After  he  became  prominent  in  the  nation,  Richard 
Fletcher,  one  of  the  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachu 
setts,  said  to  Francis  Wayland  (from  whom  I  have  the  incident), 
"Years  ago  I  had  some  correspondence  with  him  on  a  legal  mat 
ter  ;  and  he  reminded  me  more  of  John  Marshall  than  any  one  with 
whom  I  have  ever  conferred."  He  was  great,  when  disregarding 
the  counsels  of  timid  friends,  on  the  17th  of  June,  1858,  in  his 
speech  accepting  the  nomination  for  Senator,  he  said,  "A  house 
divided  against  itself  cannot  stand."  But  he  grew,  and  especial 
ly  during  those  four  years  when  men  lived  fast.  From  the  cau 
tious  conservator  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  to  the  author  of  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation,  from  the  inaugural  address  of  1881 
to  that  of  1865,  there  is  a  progress  such  as  has  rarely  been  meas 
ured  by  mortal  man.  What  men  call  his  inconsistency  was  in 
reality  only  his  growth. 


ADDRESS  OF  REV.  H.  L.  WAYLAND,  D.D.  55 

He  was  the  typical  American.     He  was  the  product  of  our  soil. 
In  forming  him,  Nature 

Chose  sweet  clay  from  the  breast 

Of  the  unexhausted  West; 

With  stuff  untainted  shaped  a  hero  new, 

Wise,  steadfast  in  the  strength  of  God,  and  true. 

It  will  always  be  the  glory  of  America  that  she  offers  a  career  to 
such  men  as  Lincoln  and  Grant,  who,  in  monarchical  or  aristo 
cratic  States,  could  never  have  risen  to  the  destiny  for  which  they 
were  created.  He  was  the  typical  American;  not  Washington; 
Washington  was  the  product  of  the  monarchy  under  which  he 
was  born,  and,  in  spirit,  belonged  to  the  Old  World.  Is  it  pos 
sible  to  think  of  Washington,  in  a  public  address,  asking,  "Shall 
we  carry  on  the  war  with  an  elder  stalk  squirt  charged  with 
rose-water?"  Is  it  possible  to  think  of  Washington,  at  mid 
night,  dancing  about  in  his  chamber,  with  long,  lean  legs  pro 
truding  from  a  somewhat  abbreviated  night-gown,  as  Lincoln  did 
when  Stanton  carried  to  him  the  news  from  Gettysburg?  General 
Washington  would  have  arrayed  himself  in  full  regimentals  be 
fore  receiving  the  tidings;  or,  he  would  have  said,  "Mr.  Stanton, 
I  shall  be  at  the  President's  office  to-morrow  morning  at  9  o'clock, 
if  you  have  any  important  communication  to  make." 

Andrew  Jackson  was  born  under  a  monarchy;  anybody  might 
know  that;  and  he  believed  devoutly  in  the  divine  right  of  His 
Imperial  Majesty,  the  Czar,  Andrew  the  First. 

Lonely  and  sorrowful  in  his  life,  Lincoln  was  fortunate  in  his 
death.  Years  could  have  added  nothing  to  his  fame.  Wolfe,  had 
he  lived  a  hundred  years,  could  never  again  have  fought  a  battle 
which  gave  a  continent  to  the  English-speaking  race.  Nelson, 


56  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

had  he  sailed  the  seas  for  many  a  year,  could  never  again  have 
found  a  fleet  of  the  enemy  to  annihilate;  nor  could  Mr.  Lincoln, 
by  any  possibility,  have  had  the  opportunity  to  carry  his  coun 
try  through  another  war  for  the  national  existence,  nor  was  there 
another  race  waiting  to  be  emancipated.  When  there  remained 
nothing  that  earth  could  give,  God  himself  bestowed  the  honor 
which  He  reserves  for  only  a  few  of  his  most  beloved  children, 
the  crown  of  martyrdom;  and  "he  went  up  to  heaven"  (as  O'Con- 
nell  grandly  said  of  Wilberforce),  "bearing  three  million  broken 
fetters  in  his  hands." 

History  has  long  ago  pronounced  its  award.  Venerated  by  his 
countrymen,  worshipped  by  the  race  which  he  freed,  honored  by 
those  who  had  been  his  sharpest  critics,  his  name  is  a  spell  to 
charm  with  through  the  civilized  world,  calling  sleeping  nations 
into  life,  awakening  hope  in  the  burdened  and  oppressed.  Pa 
tiently  he  waited  for  victory  in  life;  and  it  came.  Patiently  he 
has  waited  for  recognition  in  death;  and  it  has  come.  History  is 
slow  in  its  advances;  but  it  arrives. 

Those  men,  if  I  may  call  them  men,  who  jeered  at  him  as  an 
uncouth  backwoodsman,  a  boor,  a  clown,  a  baboon,  a  gorilla — 
where  are  they  to-day?  Oblivion  searches  for  them  in  vain;  while 
he,  reversing  the  laws  of  nature,  grows  larger  and  more  distinct 
as  he  withdraws  into  history. 

He  knew  to  bide  his  time, 

And  can  his  fame  abide, 
Still  patient,  in  his  simple  faith  sublime 

Till  the  wise  years  decide. 
Great  captains,  with  their  guns  and  drums, 

(and,  I  may  venture  to  add,  some  captains  not  so  very  great,  who 
have  only  drums,  who  have  left  their  guns  at  home,) 


ADDRESS  OF  REV.  H.  L.  WAYLAND,  D.D.  57 

Great  captains,  with  their  guns  and  drums, 

Disturb  our  judgment  for  the  hour; 
But  at  last  silence  comes; 

These  all  are  gone,  and  standing  like  a  tower, 
Our  children  shall  behold  his  fame. 

The  kindly  earnest,  brave,  foreseeing  man, 
Sagacious,  patient,  dreading  praise,  not  blame, 

New  birth  of  our  new  soil,  the  first  American. 


THE  SIXTH 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNEK 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1892 


Address  of 
REV.  G.  E.   STROBRIDGE,  D.D. 


GEORGE  E.  STROBRIDGE 

Dr.  Strobridge  was  pastor  of  the  Washington  Square 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  located  at  West  Fourth 
Street,  New  York  City.  He  has  retired  from  the  min 
istry.  As  a  preacher  and  writer  he  was  well  known. 


ADDRESS  OF 

REV.  G.  E.  STROBRIDGE,  D.D. 


Mr.  President,  Members  of  the  Republican  Club  and  Gentlemen: 
I  would  be  glad  to  have  you  all  understand  that  I  feel  that  I 
am  at  present  undertaking  a  large  contract.  If  you  had  asked 
me  in  the  brief  space  of  some  twenty  minutes  allotted  traditionally 
to  an  after-dinner  speech,  to  tell  you  how  much  the  Cleveland 
Democrats  loved  the  Hill  Democrats,  I  could  get  through  in  the 
time  and  have  still  space  to  tell  just  about  how  much  time  Senator 
Hill  has  spent  at  Washington.  And,  indeed,  I  would  still  have  a 
margin  out  of  the  twenty  minutes  to  take  you  up  in  thought  to 
Albany  and  allow  you  to  listen  to  the  serenade  given  to  the  Dem 
ocratic  majority  by  the  sweet-faced  Mugwumps;  but  to  ask  any 
one  to  do  justice  to  this  great  subject  in  this  limited  time  is  like 
trying  with  a  pocketknife  to  cut  down  one  of  the  great  pines  of 
California.  I  have  a  fancy  that  you  will  think  when  I  get 
through  the  sermon  has  broken  down  under  the  text.  There  is 
a  line  which  some  of  us  that  possibly  visit  the  churches  a 
little  more  than  some  of  the  rest  of  us — have  heard  occasionally, 
"Though  they  may  forget  the  singer,  they  will  not  forget  the 
song."  I  have  a  fancy  that  you  will  forget  presently  both  the 
singer  and  the  song  in  this  instance.  But  at  all  events,  I  ask 
you  to  remember  what  I  say,  for  the  sake  of  the  subject  I  have. 
If  you  don't  recall  much  of  what  I  say,  please  to  observe  that 
I  have  undertaken  at  least  to  speak  about  a  great  name. 


62  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

Macaulay,  in  one  of  his  spasms  of  asperity,  breaks  ont  with 
this  remark:  "The  multitude  is  more  easily  interested  for  the 
most  unmeaning  badge,  or  the  most  insignificant  name,  than  for 
the  most  important  principle."  There  are  many  who  will  think 
that  this  observation  is  as  unfair  as  it  is  caustic.  But,  however 
that  may  be,  you,  Mr.  President,  in  announcing  this  toast,  have 
just  pronounced  a  name  which  has  always  and  everywhere  a  spell 
to  charm  the  multitude,  because  it  is  a  great  name !  a  name  which 
dignifies  us  in  its  utterance,  because  it  is  of  itself  a  badge  of  no 
bility!  a  name  which  stirs  always  a  whirl  of  enthusiasm,  be 
cause  it  stands  for  the  incarnation  of  the  most  important  prin 
ciples  that  ever  roused  a  great  nation  to  action  or  led  humanity 
to  an  advance  movement! — the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  "the 
war  President,  statesman,  patriot;  the  great  and  good  man!" 

Truth  was  the  pole-star  of  his  mind.  His  one  concern  was  to 
be  guided  by  it.  The  right  was  the  only  oracle  at  which  he  made 
any  inquiries.  His  utterance  was  free  from  confusion,  because  his 
thought  was  unmixed  with  any  falsehood.  When  he  spoke,  you 
recall  the  maxim,  "The  clear  is  the  true." 

His  mental  processes  were  all  logical,  and  his  conclusions  were 
rightfully  his,  because  he  had  travelled  in  thought  all  the  way 
up  to  them.  With  him  action  was  the  response  to  reason  rather 
than  the  product  of  passion.  He  could  deliberate  when  smaller 
and  excited  minds  insisted  upon  action,  but  no  difficulties  could 
discourage  nor  dangers  deter  his  action  when  its  hour  and  oppor 
tunity  had  arrived. 

Because  he  reached  his  conclusions  by  these  legitimate  processes 
and  knew  that  he  was  right,  he  was  absolutely  immovable  in  his 
firmness,  and  stood  amid  storms  of  persuasion  like  a  rock  amid  the 
hissing  but  helpless  spray.  His  judgment  was  of  the  forecasting 
sort.  Beneath  his  sombre  but  never  stern  brow,  his  calm  and 


ADDRESS  OF  REV.  G.  E.  STROBRIDGE,  D.D.  63 

sometimes  sad  eye  took  in  long  reaches  of  time,  and  this  country 
has  not  yet  outgrown  his  predictions. 

Great,  however,  as  he  was  in  mind,  he  was  equally  great  in 
heart.  Adversity  found  him  always  braced  and  steadied  by  an 
unflinching  fortitude.  Justice  to  him  was  sacred  as  the  presence 
of  the  Deity  itself.  However  men  might  differ  in  other  respects, 
all  were  equal  in  their  claim  upon  justice.  To  make  him  con 
scious  of  an  unjust  act  would  have  been  to  make  him  conscious  of 
exquisite  pain. 

He  was  "Honest  Abe"  before  he  became  President  Lincoln.  And 
it  is  to  the  credit  of  the  American  people  that  it  was  largely  be 
cause  he  was  the  first  that  he  became  the  second.  When  post 
master  at  a  little  cross-road  village,  he  brings  forth  the  old  leather 
bag  and  counts  out  in  triumph  to  the  inspector  the  last  cent  due 
to  the  government.  He  dismisses  untouched  any  lawsuit  in  which 
truth  declines  to  be  his  client.  And,  as  a  principle  which  it  were 
well  for  every  tempted  lawyer  to  observe,  he  has  left  this 
aphorism:  "The  law  never  sanctions  cheating  and  a  lawyer  must 
be  very  smart  indeed  who  can  twist  it  so  that  it  will  seem  to 
do  so." 

His  heart  would  swim  sometimes  to  the  surface  in  tears,  as  over 
the  untimely  death  of  Ellsworth.  His  tenderness  made  him  at 
tentive  to  little  children,  and  moved  him  to  leave  his  busy  desk 
and  hasten  to  visit  the  soldier  under  sentence  of  death,  talk  lov 
ingly  with  him  and  rescue  him  from  his  terrible  fate.  When  but 
a  stripling,  having  landed  a  flat-boat  in  New  Orleans,  he  chanced 
to  witness  an  auction  in  that  city,  and  he  said :  "My  heart  bled  at 
seeing  that  family  separated  and  sold.  My  God!  if  ever  I  get 
a  chance  to  hit  that  institution,  I'll  hit  it  hard."  That  was  the 
first  sentence  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  given  out  years 
before  the  official  document  was  issued.  That  proclamation  broke 


64  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

upon  the  shore-line  of  history  in  clanging  bells,  falling  fetters 
and  shouts  of  free  men.  But  the  wave  started  far  back  there  in 
New  Orleans;  it  began  as  a  silent  swell  out  in  the  midocean  of 
Lincoln's  great  heart. 

He  was  an  unselfish  man.  Wielding  almost  unlimited  power, 
no  one  suifered  wantonly  at  his  hands  or  from  a  personal  motive. 
At  the  opening  of  his  second  administration,  he  said,  "While  I 
am  deeply  sensible  of  the  high  compliment  of  a  re-election,  it 
adds  nothing  to  my  satisfaction  that  any  other  man  may  be 
pained  or  disappointed  by  the  result."  At  the  opening  of  his  first 
administration,  when  he  might  have  justly  dismissed  William  H. 
Seward  from  his  cabinet  because  of  an  oifensive  note,  he  mag 
nanimously  chose  to  judge  the  man  not  by  his  mistakes,  but  by 
his  merits — he  rescued  him  from  political  suicide  and  gave  him 
the  opportunity  to  win,  as  he  did,  a  first  place  among  the  great  sec 
retaries.  When  his  irrevocable  decision  to  accept  Mr.  Chase's 
resignation  was  announced,  he  said,  "And  yet  there  is  not  an 
other  man  in  the  Union  who  would  make  as  good  a  Chief  Justice 
as  Chase.  And  if  I  have  the  opportunity  I  will  make  him  Chief 
Justice  of  the  United  States."  He  was  as  good  as  his  word,  the 
occasion  came,  he  promptly  honored  it,  and  the  man  who  had  ap 
parently  sought  to  annoy  the  President  and  disturb  the  country 
at  a  critical  moment,  is  by  the  grace  of  that  same  President  sent 
down  into  history  decorated  with  the  ermine  of  the  chief  court 
of  the  world.  Magnanimity  could  mount  no  higher,  never  had 
it  worn  a  nobler  crown! 

The  patience  of  Mr.  Lincoln  was  phenomenal.  It  was  not  the 
quiet  of  torpidity  or  indifference,  but  it  was  the  masterful  con 
trol  of  powers  throbbing  with  activity.  He  could  command  him 
self.  He  could  bide  his  time.  He  could  and  always  did  stop  on 
the  safe  side  of  the  premature.  But  when  patience  had  fulfilled 


ADDRESS  OF  REV.  G.  E.  STROBRIDGE,  D.D.  65 

her  mission,  then  restraint  was  changed  to  aggressive  energy,  and 
might  became  force.  Thus  it  was  he  could  wait  without  com 
plaining  while  McClellan  was  delaying,  but  after  that  he  could 
move  like  a  thunderbolt  when  Grant  was  advancing. 

As  we  look  back  now  to  those  years  thickened  over  with  clouds 
and  shot  with  streaks  of  blood  we  say:  What  man  of  all  the 
world  could  have  guided  so  safely  this  nation?  A  man  he  was 
whose  faith  in  eternal  principles  was  unfailing.  Listen,  above 
the  storm  we  hear  his  voice  in  these  clarion  words — "Let  us  have 
faith  that  right  makes  right  and  in  that  faith  let  us  to  the  end 
dare  to  do  our  duty  as  we  understand  it."  When  the  night  is 
blackest,  we  may  harken  at  the  door  of  his  private  thought  and 
hear  him  say: 

"My  soul  be  true ! 

Though  on  the  shrine  of  truth  the  blaze 
Shed  in  the  dark  its  dying  rays. 
Keep  though  thy  vigil,  in  such  ways 
The  Heavens  smile  on  you." 

Thank  God!  his  soul  was  true.  He  did  keep  his  sleepless  vigil. 
And  therefore  not  only  did  the  Heavens  sniile  on  him,  but  the 
clouds  rolled  back,  the  long  night  ended,  and  as  on  no  other  peo 
ple  the  Heavens  also  smiled  on  us ! 

This  is  the  man  to  whom  we  are  happy  to-night  to  pay  high 
honors,  great  in  mind,  great  also  in  heart,  an  all-around  great 
man.  His  character  was  not  a  bulge,  it  was  a  circle.  His  great 
ness  was  not  an  eccentricity,  it  was  a  symmetry.  Its  lines  were 
not  an  hyperbola  chasing  away  from  the  center,  but  the  sweep 
of  a  magnificent  circumference  around  which  the  sturdy  virtues 
march  and  within  which  the  gentler  graces  sing ! 


66  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

What  he  said  and  did  was  in  keeping  with  what  he  was.  Words 
falling  from  his  letters,  addresses,  messages  and  proclamations  will 
be  texts  for  freedom  and  humanity  in  all  languages  down  to  the 
end  of  time.  And  a  nation  saved  from  ruin,  man's  capacity  for 
self-government  established  beyond  all  debate,  the  rupture  of  the 
Union  of  these  States  forever  distanced  in  the  march  of  events, 
every  star  snatched  out  of  the  eclipse  of  secession  and  planted 
to  shine  again  in  the  congenial  blue  of  the  flag,  a  race  rescued 
from  bondage,  slavery  eternally  impossible  on  this  continent — all 
these  are  accomplished  facts,  compacts  made  with  all  time,  and 
each  one  signed  by  the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Not  only  has  his  work  been  so  done  that  it  never  can  go  back, 
but  it  must  advance  and  has  steadily  gone  forward.  The  pen  that 
wrote  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  was  lifted  and  pointed  like 
a  prophet's  staff  to  the  Constitutional  amendments  that  gave  cit 
izenship  and  franchise  to  the  race  but  lately  wearing  chains,  and 
it  is  still  pointing  to  the  yet  unfinished  legislation  which  will 
make  the  black  man's  suffrage  secure  against  bribery,  menace  or 
fraud.  Wonderful  man  that  he  was !  Out  of  the  quiet  of  his  Illi 
nois  home  he  stepped  upon  the  pivotal  point  in  this  nation's  his 
tory,  turned  it  into  another  course,  and  sent  it  bowling  along  the 
upward  path  of  progress  with  such  a  momentum  that  the  little 
men  and  diminished  politicians  who  venture  to  stay  its  career  will 
receive  the  simple  consideration  of  being  ground  to  dust  and 
dashed  aside. 

And  in  all  this  he  was  our  own  Lincoln!  In  our  deliverer  we 
borrowed  nothing  from  alien  lands.  The  stream  of  his  ancestry 
had  parted  with  foreign  shores  so  far  back  that  it  had  shaken  it 
self  entirely  free  from  the  sediment  of  monarchical  ideas,  and  had 
run  itself  pure  in  freedom's  healthy  soil.  Slavery  and  disunion 


ADDRESS  OF  REV.  G.  E.  STROBRIDGE,  D.D.  67 

were  an  American  problem,  and  it  was  worked  out  to  right  results 
in  the  American  way,  and  by  the  greatest  American  of  them  all. 

He,  the  most  honored  son  of  this  century,  has  raised  in  this 
land  the  standard  of  manhood.  Go  stand  in  front  of  St.  Gau- 
dens'  matchless  bronze,  and  you  will  think  and  rightly  think 
that  it  ought  to  be  more  than  ever  mean  and  difficult  and  unman 
ly  in  this  country  to  be  dishonest,  because  he  was  honest;  cruel 
because  he  was  tender;  selfish  because  he  was  magnanimous;  hasty 
because  he  was  patient;  despotic  because  he  was  just;  despondent 
because  his  faith  never  failed. 

We  may  tarry  to  notice  briefly  one  more  lesson  taught  by 
this  life  and  death,  and  that  is,  Sacrifice  is  ever  the  one  price 
of  liberty  and  progress.  He  who  lives  to-day  may  declare, 

"I  am  the  owner  of  the  sphere, 

Of  the  Seven  Stars  and  the  solar  year, 

Gf  Caesar's  hand  and  Plato's  brain, 

Of  the  Lord  Christ's  heart  and  Shakespeare's  strain." 

But  we  are  not  to  forget  what  it  cost  of  struggle,  agony,  and 
death  to  secure  all  these  for  us.  John  Brown  said  that  he  was 
worth  mere  to  hang  than  for  anything  else,  and  it  is  not  aside 
from  the  truth  to  add  that  the  rope  with  which  he  was  strangled 
was  needed  to  drag  the  car  of  our  nation's  progress  out  of  the 
mire  of  conservatism  and  compromise,  and  whirl  it  along  its  pres 
ent  rapid  and  brilliant  path.  The  world  gets  a  new  uplift  when 
ever  some  manly  life  is  bit  off  by  the  feverish  jaws  of  sacrifice. 
Over  a  soldier's  grave  on  one  of  the  Southern  battlefields  was 
found  this  inscription: 

"Whether  on  the  tented  field, 

Or  in  the  battle's  van, 
The  fittest  place  for  man  to  die 
Is  where  he  dies  for  man." 


68  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

This  is  true  and  has  always  been  true  all  the  way  from  Her 
mann,  the  German  liberator  in  the  first  century,  to  Lincoln,  the 
American  liberator  in  the  nineteenth  century,  He  willingly  lost 
his  life  for  a  great  cause;  he  fell  the  last  and  sufficient  offering 
into  the  gulf  of  civil  war.  The  chasm  closed.  The  war  is  over! 
There  is  no  dispute  now  save  the  honorable  strife  between  the 
ardent  sons  of  the  South  and  the  stalwart  sons  of  the  North,  as 
to  which  shall  hasten  first  to  the  defense  of  the  common  flag. 

Abraham  Lincoln's  work  is  done;  it  is  well  done;  it  can  never 
be  undone.  We  say  of  him  as  Carlyle  said  in  closing  his  essay 
on  Goethe,  "Vixit,  vivit !"  "He  has  lived,  he  still  lives." 

From  out  the  west,  of  broadening  plain 
Where  skies  bend  low  o'er  wavering  grain 
Our  Leader  came,  unmarred  from  nature's  mould, 
In  honor  clear,  in  truth  and  conscience  bold. 

A  broken  State  he  caught  in  giant  hands, 
And  bound  it  fast  in  blood-cemented  bands. 
The  Union's  safe,  forever  safe!  and  more, 
This  land  is  free  from  shore  to  shore! 

Each  man's  a  man,  no  serfs  or  chattels  here, 
Brows  black  as  well  as  white  God's  image  bear. 
No  lash  now  falls  when  unpaid  toilers  lag, 
All  stripes  are  laid  alone  upon  our  flag. 

It  bears  those  gleaming  lines  of  red, 
To  show  how  heroes  died  in  others'  stead ; 
And  Lincoln's  blood  flows  there,  the  price 
Of  freedom's  costly  sacrifice. 


THE  SEVENTH 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  BINNEH 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  n,  1893 


Address  of 
COL.  ROBERT  G.  INGERSOLL 


ROBERT  GREEN  INGERSOLL 

Colonel  Ingersoll  was  born  in  Dresden,  N.  Y.,  1833,  but 
spent  his  boyhood  in  Wisconsin  and  Illinois.  He  prac 
tised  law  in  Illinois.  In  1866  he  was  appointed  Attor 
ney-General  of  Illinois,  and  in  1876  won  national  fame 
as  an  orator  in  a  speech  in  the  Republican  National  Con 
vention,  nominating  James  G.  Elaine.  For  many  years 
he  was  noted  as  a  cultured  and  powerful  opponent  of  the 
Christian  religion  and  most  of  his  lectures  and  books 
had  this  origin.  Among  the  latter  were,  "The  Gods," 
"Some  Mistakes  of  Moses,"  "Prose  Poems,"  etc. 


ADDRESS  OF 

COL.  ROBERT  G.  INGERSOLL 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Club:  Abraham  Lincoln, 
the  genius  of  goodness,  strange  mingling  of  mirth  and  tears,  of 
the  tragic  and  grotesque,  of  cap  and  crown,  of  Socrates  and  De- 
mocritus,  of  .ffisop  and  Marcus  Aurelius,  of  all  that  is  gentle,  just, 
humorous  and  honest,  merciful,  wise,  lovable  and  divine,  and  all 
consecrated  to  the  use  of  man,  while  through  all  and  over  all  were 

.    ;  .  -, ,«.-.  -  rrwwvtM 

an  overwhelming  sense  of  obligation,  of  chivalric  loyalty  to  truth, 
and  upon  all  the  shadow  of  the  tragic  end. 

Nearly  all  great  historical  characters  are  impossible  monsters, 
distorted  by  flattery,  or  by  calumny  deformed.  We  know  nothing 
of  their  peculiarities,  or  nothing  but  their  peculiarities.  To  these 
great  oaks  there  clings  but  little  of  the  soil  of  humanity.  Wash 
ington  is  now  only  a  steel  engraving.  About  the  real  man  who 
loved,  and  lived,  and  hated,  and  schemed,  and  fought,  we  know 
but  little;  the  glass  through  which  we  look  at  him  is  of  such  huge 
magnifying  power  that  the  features  have  grown  exceedingly  in 
distinct. 

Hundreds  of  people  are  now  engaged  in  smoothing  out  the  lines 
in  Lincoln's  face — forcing  all  features  to  the  common  mould  so 
that  he  may  be  known,  not  as  he  really  was,  but  as  they  think  he 
should  have  been. 

Lincoln  was  not  a  type.  He  stands  alone.  He  had  no  ances 
tors,  he  had  no  fellows,  and  he  has  no  successors. 


72  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

How  can  we  account  for  this  great  man?  First  of  all,  he  had 
the  advantage  of  living  in  a  new  country  of  social  equality,  of 
personal  freedom,  of  seeing  in  the  horizon  of  his  future  the  per 
petual  star  of  hope. 

He  preserved  his  individuality;  his  mental  independence;  his 
self-respect. 

He  knew  and  mingled  with  men  of  every  kind — and,  after  all, 
men  are  the  best  books — he  became  acquainted  with  the  ambitions 
and  hopes  of  the  heart,  the  means  used  to  accomplish  ends,  the 
springs  of  action  and  the  seeds  of  thought. 

He  was  familiar  with  nature,  with  actual  things,  with  com 
mon  every-day  facts.  He  loved  and  appreciated  nature,  the  poem 
of  the  year,  the  beautiful  drama  of  the  seasons.  In  a  new  coun 
try  a  man  must  possess  at  least  three  virtues — at  least  three — 
honesty,  courage  and  generosity.  In  cultivated  society  cultiva 
tion  is  often  more  important  than  soil,  and  a  well-executed  coun 
terfeit  passes  more  readily  than  a  blurred  genuine.  It  is  neces 
sary  only  to  observe  the  unwritten  laws  of  society,  to  be  honest 
enough  to  keep  out  of  prison,  and  generous  enough  to  subscribe 
in  public  where  the  subscription  can  be  defended  as  an  invest 
ment. 

In  a  new  country,  character  is  essential;  in  the  old,  reputation 
is  often  sufficient.  In  a  new  country  they  find  out  what  a  man 
really  is ;  in  the  old  he  is  apt  to  pass  for  what  he  resembles. 

People  only  separated  by  distance  are  much  nearer  together  than 
those  divided  by  walls  of  caste.  After  all,  it  is  of  no  advantage  to 
live  in  a  great  city,  where  poverty  degrades  and  where  failure 
brings  despair.  The  fields  are  lovelier  than  paved  streets,  and 
the  oaks  and  elms  are  more  poetic  than  steeples  and  chains.  In 
the  country  is  the  idea  of  home.  There  you  see  the  rising  and  the 
setting  sun.  You  become  acquainted  with  the  stars  and  with  the 


ADDRESS  OF  COL.  ROBERT  G.  INGERSOLL  73 

clouds.  The  constellations  become  your  friends.  You  hear  the 
rain  on  the  roof,  and  you  listen  to  the  sigh  of  the  wind.  You  are 
thrilled  by  that  resurrection  called  Spring;  you  are  touched  and 
saddened  by  Autumn,  the  curse  and  poetry  of  death.  Every  field 
is  a  picture,  a  landscape,  every  landscape  is  a  poem ;  every  flower 
is  a  tender  thought,  and  every  forest  is  a  fairy  land.  In  the 
country  you  preserve  your  identity,  your  personality.  There  you 
are  an  aggregation  of  atoms,  but  in  the  city  you  are  only  an  atom 
of  an  aggregation.  In  the  country  you  keep  your  cheek  close  to 
the  breast  of  nature.  You  are  calmed  and  ennobled  by  the  space, 
the  amplitude  and  scope  of  earth  and  sky,  and  you  are  ennobled  by 
the  constancy  of  the  stars. 

Lincoln  never  finished  his  education.  He  was  a  learner.  To 
the  night  of  his  death,  a  pupil,  an  inquirer  after  knowledge.  You 
have  no  idea  how  many  men  are  spoiled  by  what  is  called  finish 
ing  their  education. 

I  have  sometimes  thought  that  many  colleges  were  places  where 
pebbles  were  polished  and  diamonds  were  dimmed,  and  I  have 
often  thought,  with  fear,  suppose  Shakespeare  had  graduated  at 
Oxford,  he  might  have  been  a  quibbling  attorney  or  a  hypocritical 
parson. 

Lincoln  was  a  perfectly  natural  man.  He  was  also  a  great  law 
yer,  and  why?  There  is  nothing  shrewder  in  this  world  than 
intelligent  honesty.  Perfect  candor  is  sword  and  shield. 

Lincoln  understood  the  nature  of  man,  and  as  a  lawyer  he  al 
ways  endeavored  to  get  at  the  truth,  at  the  very  heart  of  the  case. 
He  was  not  willing  to  deceive  himself,  no  matter  what  his  in 
terests  said,  what  his  passion  demanded.  He  was  great  enough 
to  find  the  truth  and  strong  enough  to  decide  and  pronounce 
judgment  against  his  own  desire. 

He  was  a  many-sided  man,  acquainted  with  smiles  and  tears, 


74  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

complex  in  brain,  single  in  heart,  direct  as  light,  and  his  words, 
candid  as  the  mirror,  gave  the  perfect  image  of  his  thought. 

He  was  never  afraid  to  ask,  never  too  dignified  to  learn,  never 
too  dignified  to  admit  that  he  did  not  know,  and  no  man  born  be 
neath  our  flag  had  keener  wit  or  kinder  humor, 

I  have  sometimes  thought  that  humor  is  the  pilot  of  reason. 

People  without  humor  drift  unconsciously  into  absurdity.  Hu 
mor  sees  the  other  side.  Humor  stands  in  the  mind  like  a 
sceptre,  a  good-natured  critic  and  gives  its  opinion  before  judg 
ment  is  pronounced.  Humor  goes  with  good  nature,  and  good 
nature  is  the  climate  of  reason  and  of  genius.  In  anger,  reason 
abdicates  and  malice  extinguishes  the  torch  of  the  mind.  Such 
was  the  humor  of  Lincoln  that  he  could  tell  even  unpleasant 
truths  as  charmingly  as  most  men  can  tell  what  we  wish  to  hear. 
He  was  not  solemn.  Solemnity  is  a  mask  worn  by  ignorance  and 
hypocrisy.  Solemnity  is  the  preface,  prologue  and  index  to  the 
cunning  of  a  stupid. 

Lincoln  was  natural  in  his  life  and  thought.  He  was  the  mas 
ter  of  the  story-teller's  art;  in  illustrations  apt;  in  applications 
perfect.  Liberal  in  speech,  shocking  pharisees  and  prudes,  using 
any  word  that  wit  could  disinfect. 

He  was  a  logician.  His  logic  shed  light.  In  its  presence  the 
obscure  became  luminous,  and  the  most  intricate  political  and 
metaphysical  knots  seemed  to  untie  themselves.  Logic  is  the 
necessary  product  of  intelligence  and  sincerity.  It  cannot  be 
learned.  It  cannot  be  taught.  It  is  the  child  of  a  clear  head 
and  a  good  heart. 

Lincoln  was  candid,  and  that  candor  often  deceived  the  de 
ceitful. 

He  had  intellect  without  arrogance,  genius  without  pride,  and 
religion  without  cant,  that  is  to  say  without  bigotry  and  with- 


ADDRESS  OF  COL.  ROBERT  G.  INGERSOLL  75 

out  deceit.  He  was  an  orator,  clear,  sincere,  natural.  He  did 
not  pretend.  He  did  not  say  what  he  thought  others  thought,  but 
what  he  thought,  and  if  you  wish  to  be  sublime  you  must  be  natu 
ral.  You  must  keep  close  to  the  grass.  You  must  sit  by  the  fire 
side  of  the  heart.  Above  the  clouds  it  is  too  cold.  You  must  be 
simple  in  your  speech,  too  much  polish  suggests  insincerity.  The 
great  orator  idolizes  the  real,  transfigures  the  common,  makes  even 
the  inanimate  thrill  and  throb,  fills  the  gallery  of  the  imagina 
tion  with  statues  and  pictures,  perfect  in  form  and  color;  brings 
to  light  the  gold  hoarded  by  memory,  the  miser  shows  the  glitter 
ing  coin  to  the  spendthrift.  Hope  enriches  the  brain,  ennobles 
the  heart,  quickens  the  conscience,  between  his  lips  words  bud 
and  blossom. 

If  you  wish  to  know  the  difference  between  an  orator  and  elocu 
tionist,  between  what  is  felt  and  what  is  said,  between  what  the 
heart  and  brain  can  do  together,  and  what  the  brain  can  do  alone, 
read  Lincoln's  wondrous  speech  at  Gettysburg,  and  then  the 
speech  of  Edward  Everett.  The  oration  of  Lincoln  will  never  be 
forgotten,  it  will  live  until  languages  are  dead  and  lips  are  dust. 
The  speech  of  Everett  will  never  be  read. 

The  elocutionist  believes  in  the  virtues  of  voice,  the  sublimity 
of  syntax;  the  majesty  of  long  sentences  and  the  genius  of  gesture. 

The  orator  loves  the  real,  the  simple,  the  natural,  and  he  places 
thought  and  feeling  above  all.  He  knows  that  the  greatest  ideas 
should  be  expressed  in  the  shortest  words.  He  knows  that  a  great 
idea  is  like  a  great  statue,  and  he  knows  that  the  greater  the 
statue  the  less  drapery  it  needs. 

Let  me  read  from  this  beautiful  souvenir  a  few  lines  of  what  I 
call  sculptured  speech,  and  these  words  are  as  applicable  to-day 
in  many  of  the  States  of  this  Union  as  when  they  were  first  ut 
tered.  Let  me  read: 


76  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

"And  when  by  all  these  means  you  have  succeeded  in  human 
izing  the  negro,  when  you  have  put  him  down  and  made  it  im 
possible  for  him  to  be  but  as  the  beast  of  the  field;  when  you 
have  extinguished  his  soul  in  this  world,  and  placed  him  where 
the  ray  of  hope  is  blown  out  as  in  the  darkness  of  the  damned, 
are  you  quite  sure  that  the  demon  you  have  roused  will  not  turn 
and  rend  you?  What  constitutes  the  bulwark  of  our  own  liberty 
and  independence?  It  is  not  our  frowning  battlement,  our 
bristling  seacoast,  our  army  and  our  navy. 

"These  are  not  our  reliance  against  tyranny.  All  of  these  may 
be  turned  against  us  without  making  us  weaker  for  the  struggle. 

"Our  reliance  is  in  the  love  of  liberty  which  God  has  planted 
in  us.  Our  defence  is  in  the  spirit  which  prizes  liberty  as  the 
heritage  of  all  men,  in  all  lands,  everywhere. 

"Destroy  this  spirit  and  you  have  planted  the  seeds  of  despotism 
at  your  own  doors.  Familiarize  yourselves  within  the  bondage 
and  you  prepare  your  own  limbs  to  wear  them." 

Lincoln  was  an  immense  personality.  Firm,  but  not  obstinate. 
Obstinacy  is  egotism;  firmness,  heroism.  He  influenced  others 
without  effort,  unconsciously,  and  they  submitted  to  him  as  men 
submit  to  nature,  unconsciously.  He  was  severe  with  himself 
and  for  that  reason  lenient  with  others.  He  did  merciful  things 
as  stealthily  as  others  committed  crimes.  Almost  ashamed  of 
tenderness,  he  said  and  did  the  noblest  words  and  deeds  with 
that  charming  confusion,  that  awkwardness,  that  is  the  perfect 
grace  of  modesty. 

As  a  nobleman,  wishing  to  pay  a  small  debt  to  a  poor  neigh 
bor,  reluctantly  offers  one  hundred  dollars  and  asks  for  change, 
fearing  that  he  may  be  suspected  of  making  a  display  of  wealth,  of 
a  pretense  of  payment,  so  Lincoln  hesitated  to  show  his  wealth 


ADDRESS  OF  COL.  ROBERT  G.  INGERSOLL  77 

of  goodness  even  to  the  best  he  knew,  a  great  man  stooping,  not 
wishing  to  make  his  fellows  feel  that  they  were  small  or  mean. 
By  his  candor,  by  his  perfect  freedom  from  restraint,  by  saying 
what  he  thought  and  saying  it  absolutely  in  his  own  way,  he  made 
it  not  only  possible  but  popular  to  be  natural,  to  be  true. 

He  was  the  enemy  of  mock  solemnity,  of  the  stupidly  respect 
ful,  of  the  cold  and  formal.  He  wore  no  official  robes  either  on 
his  body  or  his  soul.  He  never  pretended  to  be  more  or  less,  or 
other,  or  different  from  what  he  really  was.  He  had  the  uncon 
scious  naturalness  of  nature's  self.  He  built  upon  a  rock.  It  did 
not  satisfy  him  to  have  other  people  think  he  was  right.  He 
wanted  to  think  that  he  was  right.  He  built  upon  a  rock,  and 
the  foundation  was  secure  and  broad.  The  structure  was  a  pyra 
mid,  narrowing  as  it  rose,  and  through  days  and  nights  of  sor 
row,  through  years  of  grief  and  pain,  with  unswerving  purpose, 
with  malice  toward  none,  and  with  charity  for  all,  with  infinite 
patience,  with  unclouded  vision,  he  hoped  and  toiled.  There  was 
no  cloud  in  his  brain.  There  was  no  hate  in  his  heart.  Stone 
after  stone  was  made,  until  at  last  the  proclamation  found  its 
place,  and  on  that  the  goddess  now  stands.  He  knew  others  be 
cause  he  was  perfectly  acquainted  with  himself.  He  cared  nothing 
for  place,  everything  for  principle,  and  to  the  great  man,  place 
is  only  an  opportunity  for  doing  good.  He  cared  nothing  for 
money,  but  everything  for  independence. 

When  no  principle  was  involved,  he  was  easily  swayed,  willing 
to  go  slowly  if  in  the  right  direction.  Sometimes  willing  to  stop, 
but  he  wouldn't  go  back,  and  he  wouldn't  go  wrong. 

He  was  willing  to  wait.  He  knew  slavery  had  defenders,  but 
no  defense.  He  was  neither  tyrant  nor  slave.  He  neither  knelt 
nor  scorned.  With  him  men  were  neither  great,  rich,  nor  poor, 
nor  small.  They  were  right  or  wrong. 


78  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

Through  manners,  clothes,  titles,  rags  and  race  he  saw  the  real, 
that  which  is  beyond  accident,  policy,  compromise  and  war,  he 
saw  the  end. 

He  was  patient  as  destiny,  whose  undecipherable  hieroglyphs 
were  so  deeply  graven  on  his  sad  and  tragic  face.  Nothing  dis 
closes  real  character  like  the  use  of  power.  It  is  very  easy  for 
the  weak  to  be  gentle.  Most  people  can  bear  adversity,  but  if  you 
wish  to  know  what  a  man  really  is,  give  him  power.  This  is  the 
supreme  test. 

It  is  the  glory  of  Lincoln  that,  having  almost  absolute  power,  he 
never  abused  it  except  on  the  side  of  mercy.  Wealth  could  not 
purchase  it,  power  could  not  awe  this  divine,  this  loving  man. 

He  knew  no  fear  except  the  fear  of  doing  wrong.  Hating 
slavery,  pitying  the  master  seeking  to  conquer,  not  persons,  but 
prejudices,  he  was  the  embodiment  of  the  self-denial,  the  courage, 
the  hope  and  the  nobility  of  a  nation.  He  spoke  not  to  inflame, 
not  to  upbraid,  but  to  convince.  He  raised  his  hands,  not  to  strike, 
but  in  benediction. 

He  longed  to  pardon.  He  loved  to  see  the  pearls  of  joy  on  the 
cheeks  of  a  wife  whose  husband  he  had  rescued  from  the  dead. 

Lincoln  was  the  grandest  figure  of  the  fiercest  civil  war.  He 
is  the  gentlest  memory  of  our  world. 


THE  EIGHTH 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,     1894 


Address  of 
BISHOP  JOHN  P.  NEWMAN,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


JOHN  PHILIP  NEWMAN,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Dr.  Newman  was  bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  from  1888  till  his  death.  He  was  born  in  New 
York,  1826.  He  received  his  education  at  Cazenovia 
Seminary,  studied  theology  and  entered  the  Method 
ist  Episcopal  ministry  in  1849.  Tne  years  1850- 
1887  covered  pastorates  in  Hamilton,  N.  Y.;  Albany, 
N.  Y.;  New  York  City,  and  Washington,  D.  C.;  the 
foundation  of  schools,  conferences  and  colleges;  exten 
sive  travel  (Palestine  and  Egypt,  1860-1);  the  chap- 
lainship  of  the  Senate,  1869-74;  and  consular  work, 
1874-6.  He  was  noted  as  a  pulpit  orator  and  lecturer, 
and  as  the  author  of  many  books,  among  them  "From 
Dan  to  Beersheba,"  "Christianity  Triumphant,"  "Amer 
ica  for  Americans,"  "The  Supremacy  of  Law." 


ADDRESS  OF 

BISHOP  JOHN  P.  NEWMAN,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Republican  Club  of  the 
City  of  New  York :  On  this  memorable  occasion  let  us  call  the  roll 
of  honor,  recount  the  great  benefactors  who  have  blessed  mankind, 
and  call  up  the  great  statesmen  of  the  past,  and  you  will  agree 
with  me  that  there  is  one  name  that  is  worthy  of  immortal  re 
nown  and  deserving  of  imperishable  fame,  and  that  name  is 
Abraham  Lincoln.  Human  glory  is  sometimes  as  fickle  as  the 
winds,  and  as  transient  as  a  summer  day,  but  some  things  are 
fixed  beyond  revocation.  Lincoln's  place  in  history  is  assured. 
Empires  may  rise  and  fall;  republics  may  be  born  and  die.  Lib 
erty  may  be  a  homeless  wanderer  among  the  tribes  of  men,  but 
so  long  as  men  shall  revere  wisdom  and  admire  patriotism  and 
love  liberty,  so  long  will  they  recall  his  illustrious  name  with 
acclamations  of  gratitude  and  delight. 

He  has  all  the  symbols  of  the  world's  admiration,  embalmed  in 
song,  recorded  in  history,  eulogized  in  panegyric,  cast  in  bronze, 
sculptured  in  marble,  painted  on  the  canvas,  loved  in  the  hearts 
of  his  countrymen,  and  alive  in  the  memories  of  mankind,  he  is 
destined  to  live  among  the  few  mortals  God  has  ordained  into  im 
mortality  thereunto. 

Some  men  are  eminent  while  living,  but  their  memory  passes 
from  the  vision  of  the  world  because  their  words  and  deeds  are 
of  little  worth  to  history,  their  fame  is  buried  with  them  largely 


82  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

because  their  mission  was  limited  and  transient,  because  the 
world  had  taken  possession  of  greater  thoughts,  because  docu 
ments  have  been  discovered  that  revealed  their  selfishness.  The 
sun  of  many  a  conspicuous  man  has  gone  down  while  yet  it  is  day ; 
but  Lincoln's  fame  can  never  suffer  from  either  of  these  causes, 
for  his  life  mission  was  this  great  country,  and  vast  as  humanity 
and  enduring  as  time;  and  it  is  not  possible,  gentlemen,  that  any 
thought  can  occupy  the  mind  of  humanity  greater  than  obedience 
to  law  in  opposition  to  rebellion,  or  greater  than  freedom  or  lib 
erty  in  opposition  to  slavery. 

Knowing  him  as  we  did  in  private  ways  and  public  walks,  amid 
the  sanctities  of  home  and  the  duties  of  the  presidential  chair, 
in  social  correspondence  and  in  public  utterances,  the  grave  does 
not  contain  aught  against  his  fair  fame  as  a  man,  a  citizen  or  a 
president.  Some  men  are  not  honored  by  their  contemporaries, 
benefactors  of  mankind  though  they  have  been.  They  die  neglect 
ed,  unsung  and  unmonumented,  but  future  generations  call  their 
memories  forth  and  embalm  them  in  affection  and  gratitude. 
Lincoln  had  a  three-fold  greatness;  great  in  life,  great  in  death 
and  great  in  the  history  of  the  world. 

And  why  was  he  great?  What  had  he  accomplished  to  merit 
this  renown  ?  Ask  the  old  flag  that  floats  over  a  unified  republic ; 
ask  this  prosperous  country  of  ours  with  its  happy  homes,  its  fertile 
fields,  its  metallic  mines  and  mineral  mountains,  its  splendid  com 
merce  and  its  hitherto  prosperous  manufactories.  Ask  the  Grand 
Army  of  the  Republic.  Ask  millions  of  freed  men  advancing  to 
a  better  civilization;  ask  the  nations  of  the  Old  World  who  now 
have  a  profound  respect  for  this  proud  and  glorious  country  of 
ours. 

Great  men  appear  in  groups,  and  in  groups  they  disappear  from 
the  vision  of  the  world.  Isolated  greatness  is  a  stranger  to  our 


ADDRESS  OF  BISHOP  JOHN  P.  NEWMAN,  D.D.,  LL.D.  83 

race.  Solidarity  is  the  law  of  national  progress.  Wherever  there 
is  one  who  is  eminently  great,  around  him  are  coadjutors.  Take 
for  instance  that  magnificent  group  of  historic  characters  in  the 
sixteenth  century — Maximilian  I.  and  Charles  V.;  Francis  I.  and 
Henry  VIII.;  Isabella  and  Ferdinand;  Columbus  and  Luther;  and 
then  as  contemporaries,  Napoleon  in  France,  Wellington  in  Eng 
land  and  Washington  in  America,  and  all  the  galaxies  of  glory 
that  have  been  resplendent  in  any  country.  Eemember  that  his 
toric  group  of  our  own  country,  Lincoln  and  Grant;  Seward  and 
Chase;  Stanton  and  Sumner;  Morton  and  Conkling;  Sherman  and 
Sheridan ;  Porter  and  Farragut.  Beat  that  if  you  can. 

We  are  to  measure  Lincoln  by  the  greatness  of  his  associates. 
Some  men  are  great  because  of  the  littleness  of  their  surround 
ings.  He  only  is  great,  Mr.  President,  who  is  great  amid  greatness, 
and  this  law  of  historic  groupings  is  true  of  our  day  in  piping  times 
of  peace.  Genius  is  not  aflame  and  greatness  is  not  apparent ;  but 
when  the  crisis  comes  God  lifts  the  curtain  from  obscurity  and 
the  man  of  the  hour  comes  forth.  The  crisis  is  upon  us.  It  re 
minds  us  of  the  darker  days  of  1860,  but  on  the  throne  of  the 
universe  is  the  God  of  our  fathers,  and  we  have  nothing  to  fear, 
with  a  Sherman  in  the  Senate,  and  Reed  in  the  House,  and  Mc- 
Kinley  in  Ohio,  and  God  over  all. 

Our  English  cousins  remind  us  of  the  lowliness  of  the  birth 
of  Mr.  Lincoln,  of  his  neglected  childhood,  of  his  terrible  strug 
gles  against  poverty,  but  we  are  not  ashamed  of  the  lowliness  of 
his  birth;  we  are  proud  of  his  greatness  as  illustrative  in  him  of 
the  possibilities  of  the  American  citizen.  We  never  placed  a  pre 
mium  upon  neglected  childhood.  Of  the  nineteen  presidents  of 
this  republic,  fourteen  were  university  men,  having  graduated 
with  the  highest  honors,  and,  with  two  or  three  exceptions,  all 
occupied  a  high  social  position  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.  But 


84  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

I  confess  to  you,  my  honored  friends,  that  I  would  rather  be  the 
rail-splitter  of  Illinois,  or  the  canal-boat  driver  of  Ohio,  or  the 
tanner  of  Galena,  and  die  the  honored  President  of  the  United 
States,  than  to  be  born  a  royal  prince  and  die  a  royal  scoundrel. 

Lincoln  was  a  providential  man,  but  he  had  so  much  humility 
that  while  he  believed  that  God  had  raised  him  up  to  save  a  great 
nation  and  to  advance  the  great  interests  of  humanity,  he  never 
had  pride  enough  to  suppose  that  he  was  greater  than  Congress 
or  greater  than  the  American  people.  His  character  was  strange 
ly  symmetrical;  temperate  but  not  austere;  brave  but  not  rash; 
constant  but  not  stubborn;  he  laid  caution  over  against  hope, 
lest  hope  should  be  premature,  and  hope  over  against  caution,  lest 
caution  should  fail  in  the  hour  of  dread  and  danger.  His  love 
of  justice  equaled  his  love  of  compassion;  his  self-abnegation 
found  its  highest  expression  in  the  welfare  of  the  people,  and  his 
honesty  was  never  suspected;  his  integrity  was  never  questioned. 
The  beauty  of  his  moral  character  has  thrown  into  the  shade  the 
splendor  of  his  intellect.  The  time  will  come  when  the  severest 
critic  of  mental  philosophy  and  mental  development  will  sit  in 
judgment  of  admiration  upon  the  splendid  furniture  of  that  great 
mind.  He  was  a  logician  by  nature.  His  terse  and  beautiful 
rhetoric  rivals  the  utterances  of  the  greatest  orators  of  the  past 
and  present;  and  when  the  orations  of  the  Roman  Forum,  and  the 
Greek  Bema,  and  the  British  Parliament  have  ceased  to  inspire 
the  admiration  of  the  scholar,  Lincoln's  inaugurals  and  his  Gettys 
burg  panegyric  will  excite  the  admiration  of  the  critic  and  the 
scholar  in  all  lands  and  under  all  circumstances. 

We  are  to  measure  him  by  the  obstacles  he  surmounted;  by  the 
results  that  he  achieved.  It  is  not  philosophy,  gentlemen,  for  us 
to  judge  of  a  man  aside  from  his  surroundings.  Every  age  has 
its  heroes,  every  crisis  has  its  master.  Every  man  must  stand  on 


ADDRESS  OF  BISHOP  JOHN  P.  NEWMAN,  D.D.,  LL.D.  85 

his  own  pedestal  of  renown.  It  will  not  do  to  say  that  Talleyrand 
was  greater  than  Lincoln,  or  Pitt  was  greater.  We  do  not  know 
what  Talleyrand  would  have  done  if  he  had  been  in  Lincoln's 
place,  or  what  Pitt  would  have  done,  nor  do  we  know  what  Lin 
coln  would  have  done  had  he  been  in  the  position  of  either.  We 
must,  therefore,  judge  of  the  man's  greatness  by  his  own  sur 
roundings,  by  his  own  age. 

He  entered  political  life  amid  the  most  virulent  convulsions  in 
the  annals  of  time.  He  was  in  a  death  grapple  with  a  people  that 
we  had  as  companions  of  a  hundred  years;  a  proud,  chivalrous 
people  with  an  army  of  the  bravest  soldiers,  commanded  by  gen 
erals  that  were  equal  to  the  marshals  of  France,  backed  by  a 
people  that  had  been  educated  in  treason  and  by  a  womanhood 
schooled  in  rebellion.  Nay,  more  than  this,  in  all  these  terrible 
purgatorial  years  through  which  the  nation  passed,  his  hope 
fulness  inspired  the  despondency  of  the  North  when  our  armies 
were  defeated  in  the  South.  He  arose  in  supernal  majesty  against 
foes  abroad  and  copper-head  Democrats  at  home.  You  are 
therefore,  to  judge  of  him  by  these  great  achievements.  Nay, 
more  than  this,  if  there  is  anything  that  places  him  highest  in 
our  estimation  it  is  the  singleness  of  his  purpose  as  the  President 
of  the  United  States.  He  knew  the  philosophy,  Mr.  President,  of 
a  supreme  thought,  and  that  supreme  thought  was  to  maintain 
the  Union  of  the  United  States.  His  guide  was  the  Constitution. 
He  would  consent  to  no  compromise.  He  would  not  abate  one  jot 
or  tittle.  He  would  have  the  Union  or  nothing.  He  would  have 
the  Union  with  slavery  or  without  slavery.  As  a  great  constitu 
tional  lawyer  he  grasped  this  fundamental  fact:  he  said  the  slave 
would  be  better  off  in  the  Union  of  the  United  States  than  in  a 
Confederacy  with  a  live  slave  for  its  chief  corner-stone.  The 
emancipation  of  slavery  was  a  subordinate  consideration  with 


86  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

him,  and  all  other  cognate  thoughts  were  subordinate.  But  like 
a  magnificent  vision,  the  perpetuity  of  the  nation  arose  before 
him  and  he  bent  all  his  energies  for  that  preservation. 

Would  you  ask  for  a  higher  or  nobler  standard  ?  Remember  his 
rare  discrimination,  his  sagacity  in  selecting  men  to  maintain 
that  "Union,  to  perpetuate  it,  which,  I  trust,  will  be  perpetuated 
until  the  last  syllable  of  recorded  time.  And  in  nothing  more  is 
the  greatness  of  his  mind  displayed  than  in  his  persistent  and 
enthusiastic  support  of  General  Grant  to  crush  the  rebellion.  Jeal 
ousy  and  ambition  were  rife.  Wild  passions  of  war  had  given 
birth  to  a  pandemonium  of  defamation.  Grant  was  opposed  at 
every  upward  step.  He  was  neglected  or  left  without  command ; 
he  was  maligned,  and  in  every  possible  way  obstacles  were  thrown 
in  his  path.  But  Lincoln  stood  firm  by  him,  and  these  two  men 
go  down  hand  in  hand  into  history  amid  the  benedictions  of  a 
grateful  people. 

It  is  well,  therefore,  Republicans,  that  you  gather  here  once  a 
year  around  this  festive  board  to  commemorate  the  character  of 
this  illustrious  man.  Gather  here  to  rekindle  the  fires  of  patriot 
ism;  gather  here  to  protect  the  purity  and  the  freedom  of  the  bal 
lot  in  the  North  and  in  the  South.  Gather  here  to  swear  by  the 
better  angels  of  your  nature,  that  the  Republican  party  shall  have 
a  new  baptism  of  patriotism,  and  once  more  control  the  interests 
and  destinies  of  this  country.  That  by  your  voice  and  your  ener 
gies  and  your  patriotism  you  shall  see  to  it  that  those  great  prin 
ciples  advocated  by  Mr.  Lincoln  shall  never  be  neglected,  and 
above  all,  that  the  free  trade  of  the  South  shall  not  destroy  the 
protected  industries  of  the  North. 


THE  NINTH 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1895 


Address  of 
HON.  JOHN  M.  THURSTON 


JOHN  MELLEN  THURSTON 

Ex-Senator  Thurston  was  born  in  Montpelier,  Vt.,  in 
1847,  but  moved  to  Wisconsin  in  early  boyhood.  His 
youth  was  one  of  rugged  struggle  against  adverse  con 
ditions  in  the  effort  to  secure  an  education;  during  his 
college  course  at  Wayland  University,  Wisconsin,  he 
supported  himself  by  farm  work  and  the  roughest  man 
ual  labor.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1869,  and 
started  practice  in  Omaha.  He  soon  won  prominence  in 
local  municipal  affairs;  became  a  member  of  the  Legis 
lature  of  the  State  of  Nebraska  in  1875,  and  U.  S. 
Senator  for  Nebraska  in  1895.  He  was  Chairman  of  the 
Republican  National  Conventions  of  1888  and  1896,  and 
U.  S.  Commissioner  to  the  St.  Louis  Exposition  in  1901. 


ADDRESS  OF 

HON.    JOHN    M.  THURSTON 


Mr.  Toastmaster  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Republican  Club :  In  the 
days  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  a  deserter  or  a  conscript  was  not  re 
ceived  with  favor,  I  am  both.  I  enlisted  for  a  Michigan  banquet, 
and  I  find  myself  drafted  in  New  York.  To  the  charge  of  deser 
tion  I  plead  detention  by  imperative  professional  duty.  As  a 
drafted  man  I  throw  myself  upon  the  mercy  of  the  court.  I 
have  already  disappointed  one  magnificent  audience,  and  am 
about  to  disappoint  another.  I  say  it,  advisedly,  for  you  coming 
here  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  a  master,  find  only  a  humble  disciple  of 
that  great  lawyer,  orator  and  logician,  whose  place  upon  your 
program  no  living  man  can  adequately  fill.  I  am  from  the  re 
generated  West,  where  the  bison  and  the  Populist  no  longer 
bellow  and  cavort,  where  fusion  is  confused,  and  where  the  polit 
ical  ragtag  and  bobtail  have  taken  to  the  woods.  The  West 
is  once  more  Republican  and  American.  Strong  in  the  knowledge 
of  her  growing  power,  her  coming  empire,  she  leaves  sectionalism 
and  provincialism  for  those  who  educate  their  children,  spend 
their  vacations  and  receive  their  political  ideas  abroad.  This 
mighty  West  has  furnished  all  the  Republican  presidents  and 
some  of  the  statesmen  of  the  country,  and  I  assure  you  that  the 
supply  of  raw  material  is  not  exhausted  yet.  We  shall  offer  you 
the  best  we  have  in  1896.  But  the  people  of  the  West  are  not 
patriots  for  office.  Their  Republicanism  does  not  depend  upon 


go  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

the  location  of  candidates,  and  the  nominee  of  the  next  national 
convention  will  receive  the  vote  of  every  Western  state  in  this 
country.  We  will  stand  by  our  farms  and  our  mines,  but  not  to 
the  injury  of  the  commerce  or  the  capital  of  the  East. 

I  love  my  State,  her  sturdy  people,  her  matchless  progress,  her 
growing  industries,  her  thriving  cities,  her  mellow  sunshine,  yea, 
her  mighty  storms,  but  I  love  my  country  first.  Nebraska  put  one 
star  in  the  azure  of  the  flag  and  New  York  put  another,  but  when 
they  took  their  places  in  that  flag,  they  were  no  longer  the  stars 
of  New  York  and  Nebraska,  but  stars  of  the  mightiest  nation  of 
the  earth,  shining  for  the  protection  and  prosperity  of  every 
American  citizen. 

I  am  commissioned  to-night  to  speak  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the 
simplest,  sweetest,  saintliest,  sublimest  character  of  the  age. 
Sixty  million  free  people  join  with  us  in  commemoration  of  his 
birth,  yet  he  wielded  no  sceptre  and  wore  no  crown;  but  in  his 
life  he  exercised  greater  powers,  called  into  existence  grander 
armies,  and  won  for  his  country  and  humanity  grander  victories 
than  any  who  preceded  him  upon  the  earth,  and  in  his  death  he 
reached  to  the  full  stature  of  immortal  fame. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to-night  to  review  the  life  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  for  that  is  a  part  of  the  history  of  our  country.  That 
history  remains  with  all  loyal  men,  it  is  emblazoned  upon  the 
nation's  battle-flags;  it  speaks  from  silent  lips;  it  lingers  in  the 
shadow  of  desolate  lives;  yea,  and  it  blooms  in  beauty  aboveThe 
sacred  dust  of  those  who  fell  by  river  and  by  sea.  It  should  be 
cherished  in  every  public  school;  it  should  be  preached  from  every 
Christian  pulpit;  it  should  be  honored,  venerated,  loved,  wherever 
liberty  is  dear  to  man. 

I  shall  refer  to-night  to  only  one  event  in  the  public  career  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  but  the  happening  of  that  event  was  the  har- 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JOHN  M.  THURSTON          91 

Mnger  of  a  new  civilization,  the  dawn  of  a  new  epoch  in  human 
affairs.  Not  long  since,  as  I  sat  in  a  crowded  court  room,  engaged 
in  the  trial  of  a  case  involving  the  title  to  a  valuable  tract  of 
real  estate,  there  came  to  the  witness  stand  a  venerable 
white-haired  negro.  Written  all  over  his  old,  black  face  was  the 
history  of  three-quarters  of  a  century  of  such  an  existence  as  few 
persons  have  ever  known.  Born  a  slave,  he  had  stood  upon  the 
auction  block  and  been  sold  to  the  highest  bidder;  he  had  seen 
his  wife  and  children  dragged  from  his  side  by  those  who  mocked 
his  breaking  heart;  he  bore  upon  his  back  the  scars  and  ridges 
of  a  master's  lash.  When  asked  his  age  lie  drew  himself  proudly 
up  and  said :  "For  fifty  years  I  was  a  chattel ;  on  the  first  day  of 
January,  1863,  Old  Uncle  Abe  made  me  a  man." 

The  act  which  set  that  old  man  free  was  the  crowning  glory 
of  Lincoln's  life,  for  by  it  he  not  only  saved  a  nation,  but  eman 
cipated  a  race. 

We  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  tongue  are  justly  proud  of  Magna 
Charta,  that  great  constitutional  enactment,  set  up  by  the  Barons 
of  Runnymede  against  the  unlimited  exercise  of  kingly  power. 
We  are  justly  proud  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  that  first 
complete  written  assertion  of  the  equality  of  men,  and  the  right 
of  government  by  the  people.  The  genesis  of  American  liberty 
was  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  but  the  gospel  of  its  new 
testament  was  written  by  Abraham  Lincoln  in  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation.  And  the  Magna  Charta  of  man's  real  freedom  and 
equality  is  the  fourteenth  amendment  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States. 

I  am  a  believer  in  the  overruling  providence  of  Almighty  God. 
I  cannot  so  far  belittle  the  miracle  of  my  own  existence  and  the 
incomprehensible  splendors  of  the  universe  as  for  a  moment  to  be 
lieve  that  they  came  of  chance.  What  thoughtful  student  of  his- 


92  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

tory  can  deny  that  this  continent  of  ours  has  been  under  the  guid 
ance  of  an  especial  Providence,  which  kept  it  through  all  ages  of 
early  man  until  the  civilization  of  the  Old  World  had  grown  and 
expanded  and  was  ready  for  transposition  to  the  New;  which  put 
the  preposterous  idea  of  a  round  world  into  the  quickened  brain 
of  the  Genoese  sailor;  gave  him  courage  to  go  from  court  to 
court  until  his  prayer  was  answered  by  the  sympathetic  queen?  It 
filled  his  sail  with  favoring  breezes,  stood  at  the  helm  and  guided 
his  ship  aright;  when  he  landed  on  the  unknown  strand,  he  had 
raised  above  him  the  great  white  cross  of  a  Savior's  love,  the  em 
blem  of  immortal  hope. 

Columbus,  Washington,  Lincoln,  Grant;  discoverer,  father,  pre 
server,  hero.  Did  chance  select  them  each  for  his  glorious  work 
so  gloriously  performed?  Let  the  fool  answer  how  he  will,  I  pre 
fer  to  see  the  finger  of  Divine  design.  The  rail-splitter  of  Illi 
nois  became  the  President  of  the  Republic  in  the  darkest  hour  of 
our  history.  Inexperienced  and  untried  in  public  affairs,  he  orig 
inated  national  policies,  overruled  statesmen,  directed  armies,  re 
moved  generals,  and  when  it  became  necessary  to  save  the  na 
tion,  gave  a  new  interpretation  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  He  amazed  politicians  and  offended  the  leaders  of  his 
own  party,  but  the  people  from  whom  he  sprang  trusted  him 
blindly,  and  followed  him  by  instinct.  The  child  leads  the  blind, 
not  by  greater  strength  or  intelligence,  but  by  certainty  of  vision. 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  above  the  clouds  and  stood  in  the  clear 
sunshine  of  Heaven's  indicated  will. 

So  stands  the  mountain, 
While  the  murky  shadows  thicken  at  its  base; 
Beset  by  the  tempest,  lashed  by  the  storm, 
Darkness  and  desolation  on  every  side; 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JOHN  M.  THURSTON          93 

No  ray  of  hope  in  the  lightning's  lurid  lances, 

No  voice  of  safety  in  the  crashing  thunderbolt; 

But  high  above  the  topmost  mist, 

Vexed  by  no  wave  of  angry  sound, 

Kissed  by  the  sun  of  day,  wooed  by  the  stars  of  night, 

The  eternal  summit  lifts  its  sunny  crest, 

Crowned  with  the  infinite  serenity  of  peace. 

God  said  let  there  be  light,  and  there  was  light:  light  on  the 
ocean,  light  on  the  land.  God  said  let  there  be  light:  light  on 
Calvary,  light  for  the  souls  of  men.  God  said  let  there  be  light, 
and  there  was  light :  light  on  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  light 
on  the  honor  of  the  nation,  light  on  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  light  on  the  black  faces  of  patient  bondsmen,  light 
on  every  standard  of  liberty  throughout  the  world. 

Divine  justice  would  not  permit  that  the  nation  should  be  pre 
served  under  a  Constitution  which  meant  the  perpetuation  of  hu 
man  slavery.  The  careful  student  of  that  great  conflict  readily 
discovers  that  up  to  the  time  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation, 
the  doubtful  tide  of  battle  set  most  strongly  against  the  Union 
shore,  reverse  followed  reverse  until  the  boasting  host  of  the  Con 
federacy  seemed  apt  to  make  their  declaration  good  that  they 
would  proclaim  the  Confederate  government  from  the  steps  of  the 
National  Capitol.  But  from  the  hour  when  the  cause  of  the  Union 
became  the  cause  of  humanity;  from  the  hour  when  the  flag  of 
the  republic  became  the  flag  of  liberty;  from  the  hour  when  its 
stars  and  stripes  no  longer  floated  above  a  slave;  yea,  from  the 
sacred  hour  of  the  nation's  new  birth,  that  dear  banner  never 
faded  from  the  sky,  and  the  brave  boys  who  bore  it  never  wavered 
in  their  onward  march  to  victory. 

With  the  single  exception  of  Chancellorsville,  and  that  stub- 


94  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

born,  doubtful  day  at  Chickamauga,  no  decisive  field  of  battle  was 
ever  lost  by  the  men  who  sang  with  double  enthusiasm : 

"John  Brown's  body  lies  a-mouldering  in  the  grave, 
But  his  soul  goes  marching  on." 

From  the  Potomac  to  the  Shenandoah,  from  Chattanooga  to  the 
sea,  the  war-worn,  battle-scarred  veterans  took  new  hope,  touched 
elbows  with  new  courage,  saw  in  each  other's  eyes  a  new  fire. 
Sang  with  a  new  inspiration  that  glorious  anthem : 

"In  the  beauty  of  the  lilies,  Christ  was  born  across  the  sea, 
With  the  glory  in  His  bosom,  that  transfigures  you  and  me. 
As  He  died  to  make  men  holy,  let  us  die  to  make  men  free, 
For  God  is  marching  on." 

The  blue  and  the  gray  lie  in  eternal  slumber  side  by  side,  heroes 
all;  they  fell  face  to  face,  brother  against  brother,  to  expiate  a 
nation's  sin.  The  lonely  fireside,  the  unknown  graves,  the  memory 
of  the  loved,  the  yearning  for  the  lost,  desolated  altars  and  the 
broken  hopes  are  above  recall.  The  wings  of  our  weak  prejudices 
beat  in  vain  against  the  iron  doors  of  fate,  and  through  the  min 
gled  tears,  that  fall  alike  upon  the  honored  dead  of  both  North 
and  South,  turn  hopeful  eyes  to  that  new  future  of  prosperity  and 
power,  only  possible  under  the  shelter  of  the  dear  old  flag.  To 
the  North  and  South;  the  master  and  the  slave;  the  white  man 
and  the  black,  Abraham  Lincoln  was  G-od's  providence. 

What  is  the  heritage  to  us?  Lincoln  on  the  immortal  field  of 
Gettysburg  said,  "A  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for 
the  people."  A  government  of  the  people  so  broad  that  it  covers 
land,  home  and  liberty  to  the  down-trodden  and  oppressed  of  all 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JOHN  M.  THURSTON          95 

the  earth,  so  strong  that  the  sheathed  swords  of  its  citizen  soldiery 
need  never  again  be  drawn  to  protect  it  from  foes  without  or  dis 
sensions  within;  so  liberal  that  in  its  sky  the  star  of  every  faith 
may  find  a  place  and  by  its  altars  individual  conscience  fears 
neither  Church  nor  State;  so  well  beloved  that  the  bright  bayonet 
does  honor  in  every  American  hand,  and  the  certain  bulwark  of  its 
liberty  in  every  American  heart. 

A  government  by  the  people  in  which  the  unit  of  political 
power  is  individual  citizenship.  Government  of  the  people  is  or 
ganized  to  protect  the  weak  against  oppression  by  the  strong, 
to  protect  the  poor  against  unjust  exaction  by  the  rich,  to  protect 
the  ignorant  from  the  subtleties  of  the  learned.  The  ballot-box  is 
the  safety  of  a  people's  government  and  of  the  United  States  of 
America.  That  government  that  will  not  protect  its  citizens  in 
the  exercise  of  their  highest  privilege  of  citizenship  should  not 
be  permitted  to  cumber  the  earth.  God's  justice  will  mark  it  for 
destruction  as  it  has  marked  other  nations  for  lesser  crimes. 

What  we  need  in  this  country  is  the  Emancipation  Proclamation 
and  the  stars  and  stripes  at  every  polling  place.  We  need  a  re 
vival  of  the  American  flag.  Let  it  float  over  every  American 
school-house;  let  the  true  story  of  every  American  battlefield  be 
taught  in  every  public  school.  Set  the  stars  of  the  Union  in  the 
hearts  of  our  children,  and  the  glory  of  the  republic  will  remain 
forever.  It  does  not  matter  whether  the  American  cradle  is 
rocked  to  the  music  of  "Yankee  Doodle"  or  the  lullaby  of  "Dixie," 
if  the  flag  of  the  nation  is  displayed  above  it,  and  the  American 
baby  can  be  safely  trusted  to  pull  about  the  floor  the  rusty  scab 
bard  and  the  battered  canteen,  whether  the  inheritance  be  from 
blue  or  gray,  if  from  the  breast  of  a  true  mother  and  the  lips 
of  a  brave  father  its  little  soul  is  filled  with  the  glory  of  the 
American  constellation. 


§6  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

A  government  for  the  people,  for  the  American  people;  not  for 
those  alone  of  native  birth,  but  for  the  men  who  will  loyally  and 
in  good  faith  subscribe  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
and  obey  the  laws  of  the  land.  Every  man  who  loved  our  coun 
try  well  enough  to  fight  for  it,  if  need  be  to  die  for  it;  every 
man  who  loved  it  well  enough  to  bid  good-bye  to  his  native  land, 
look  for  the  last  time  on  the  graves  of  the  loved  ones,  and  chance 
himself  to  the  ocean  and  the  unknown  shore  beyond  in  the  hope  of 
securing  to  himself  and  children  liberty  and  opportunity,  is  worthy 
of  American  citizenship  and  to  participate  in  the  best  govern 
ment  on  the  earth. 

Open  the  gates  of  Castle  Garden  wide  to  every  God-fearing,  lib 
erty-loving,  law-abiding,  labor-seeking,  decent  man.  But  close 
them  at  once  and  forever  upon  all  whose  birth,  whose  policy, 
whose  teachings,  whose  practices  would  endanger  the  safety  of 
American  labor. 

It  is  related  that  in  Pittsburgh,  on  the  night  of  the  last  elec 
tion,  after  the  returns  had  made  it  certain  that  the  country  had 
gone  Republican,  two  hard-handed  workingmen,  clothed  in 
their  working  blouses,  climbed  to  the  top  of  a  smokeless  chimney 
and  there,  in  the  glare  of  the  city's  electric  light,  nailed  to  it  an 
American  flag,  and  when  the  morning  sunshine  blessed  the  earth 
it  kindled  the  waves  of  that  dear  old  flag  with  glory.  That  flag 
on  that  dismantled  chimney  meant  that  prosperity  would  come 
back  to  the  United  States  with  the  triumph  of  the  Republican 
party.  It  meant  that  whatever  labor  is  to  be  done  for  the  people 
of  the  United  States  shall  be  done  by  the  people  of  the  United 
States  under  the  stars  and  stripes,  It  meant  that  the  hope  of  the 
common  people,  the  salvation  of  American  labor,  the  permanency 
of  American  institutions,  is  only  safe  with  the  party  of  Abraham 
Lincoln.  And  this  government  of  the  people  shall  not  perish  from 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JOHN  M.  THURSTON  97 

the  earth.  Our  nation  has  stood  for  twelve  decades,  a  menace 
to  oppression  and  hope  for  the  oppressed.  Mother  of  republics — 
her  lullaby  is  sung  over  every  cradle  of  liberty  throughout  the 
world.  The  last  throne  has  disappeared  from  the  western  con 
tinent,  and  the  conscience  of  the  twentieth  century  will  not  tol 
erate  a  crown. 

On  Freedom's  scroll  of  honor  the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln  is 
written  first.  The  colossal  statue  of  his  fame  stands  forever  on 
the  pedestal  of  a  people's  love.  About  it  are  the  upturned,  glori 
fied  faces  of  an  emancipated  race;  in  its  protecting  shadow,  liberty, 
equal  rights  and  justice  is  the  heritage  of  every  American  citizen, 
The  sunshine  of  approving  Heaven  rests  upon  it  like  an  infinite 
benediction,  and  over  it  calmly  floats  the  unconquered  flag  of  the 
greatest  nation  of  the  earth. 


THE  TENTH 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1896 


Address  of 
HON.  CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPEW 


CHAUNCEY  MITCHELL  DEPEW,  LL.D. 

Senator  Depew  was  born  in  Peekskill,  N.  Y.,  1834. 
He  graduated  from  Yale  in  1856  and  was  admitted  to 
the  Bar  in  1858.  In  1861-2  he  was  a  member  of  the 
Assembly  of  the  State  of  New  York  and  in  1872  declined 
the  appointment  of  U.  S.  Minister  to  Japan.  He  has 
been  since  1866  closely  associated  in  the  management  of 
the  New  York  Central  &  Hudson  River  R.  R.,  its  prede 
cessors  and  allied  lines;  from  1885-98  he  was  president 
of  the  N.  Y.  C.  &  H.  R.  R.  R.  and  afterwards  chairman 
of  the  boards  of  directors  of  the  various  railroads  com 
prising  the  N.  Y.  C.  Lines.  Since  1899  he  has  been 
United  States  Senator  from  the  State  of  New  York.  He 
is  a  director  of  numerous  railroads  and  banking  corpor 
ations  and  is  distinguished  as  an  orator  and  after-dinner 
speaker. 


ADDRESS  OF 

HON.   CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPEW 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen:  Celebrations  of  the  anniversaries 
of  heroes  and  statesmen,  of  battlefields  and  significant  events,  have, 
as  a  rule,  only  an  historical  interest.  They  lack  the  freshness 
and  passion  of  touch  and  attachment.  It  has  always  been  the 
habit  of  peoples  to  deify  their  heroes.  After  a  few  generations 
they  are  stripped  of  every  semblance  to  humanity.  We  can  reach 
no  plane  where,  after  the  lapse  of  100  years,  we  can  view  George 
Washington  as  one  of  ourselves.  He  comes  to  us  so  perfect,  full- 
rounded,  and  complete  that  he  is  devoid  of  the  defects  which  make 
it  possible  for  us  to  love  greatness.  The  same  is  largely  true  of 
all  the  ^Revolutionary  worthies,  except  that  the  Colonial  Dames 
have  raised — or  lowered — Benjamin  Eranklin  to  the  level  of  our 
vision  by  deciding  that  he  was  so  human  that  his  descendant  in 
the  fourth  generation  is  unworthy  of  their  membership.  Thank 
Heaven,  we  can  still  count  as  one  of  ourselves,  with  his  humor,  and 
his  sadness,  with  his  greatness  and  his  every-day  homeliness,  with 
his  wit  and  his  logic,  with  his  gentle  chivalry  that  made  him 
equal  to  the  best  born  knight,  and  his  awkward  and  ungainly  ways 
that  made  him  one  of  the  plain  people,  our  martyred  President,  our 
leader  of  the  people,  Abraham  Lincoln. 

The  Eevolutionary  War  taught  liberty  from  the  top  down;  the 
Civil  War  taught  liberty  from  the  people  up  to  the  colleges  and 
pulpits.  The  Eevolutionary  struggle  was  the  revolt  of  property 


102  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

against  unjust  taxation  until  it  evoluted  into  independence.  It 
was  the  protest  of  the  leaders  in  commercial,  industrial,  and  agri 
cultural  pursuits  against  present  and  prospective  burdens.  Sublime 
as  were  its  results,  and  beneficial  as  was  the  heritage  which  it  left 
behind,  there  was  a  strong  element  of  materialism  in  its  genesis 
and  motive.  The  Civil  War  threw  to  the  winds  every  material 
consideration  in  the  magnificent  uprising  of  a  great  and  pros 
perous  people  moved  to  make  every  sacrifice  for  patriotism,  for 
country  and  for  the  enfranchisement  of  the  bondsmen.  The 
leaders  of  the  Revolutionary  struggle  represented  Colonial  suc 
cess.  Washington  was  the  richest  man  in  the  United  States. 
Jefferson  and  Hamilton,  Jay  and  the  Adamses  were  the  best 
products  of  the  culture  of  American  colleges  and  of  opportunity. 
In  the  second  period,  when  the  contest  was  for  the  supremacy 
of  the  principle  of  the  preservation  of  the  Union  against  the 
destructive  tendencies  of  the  State  rights,  Daniel  Webster  and 
Henry  Clay  represented  the  American  farmers'  sons  who  liad  also 
received  the  benefits  of  liberal  education.  In  the  third  period  the 
protest  against  the  extension  of  slavery,  the  war  for  the  Union — 
with  the  contributions  which  came  to  our  statesmanship  from  the 
newly  settled  territories,  we  had  the  heroes  born  in  the  log  cabins. 
Their  surroundings  and  deprivations  were  not  those  of  poverty, 
but  of  struggle.  The  great  leader  was  born  in  the  log  cabin. 
A  little  clearing  in  the  wilds  of  Kentucky,  a  shiftless  wandering 
to  Indiana,  and  a  repetition  of  the  experience,  another  shiftless 
movement  to  Illinois,  v/ith  no  better  results,  a  neighborhood  of 
rough,  ignorant,  drinking  and  quarreling  young  men,  and  with 
no  advantages  of  books,  of  household  teachings,  of  church  in 
fluences,  of  gentle  companionship — these  were  the  environments 
from  which  there  came,  without  stain,  the  purest  character,  the 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPEW        103 

noblest,  the  most  self-sacrificing  and  the  loftiest  statesman  of  our 
country  or  of  any  country. 

The  age  of  miracles  has  passed,  and  yet,  unless  he  can  be  ac 
counted  for  upon  well-defined  principles,  Lincoln  was  a  miracle, 
At  twenty  years  of  age,  dressed  in  skins,  never  having  known  a 
civilized  garment,  he  was  the  story-teller  of  the  neighborhood, 
the  good-natured  giant  who,  against  rough  and  cruel  companions, 
used  his  great  strength  to  defend  the  weak  and  protect  the  op 
pressed.  He  thirsted  for  knowledge,  and  he  exhausted  the  libra 
ries  for  miles  around,  whose  resources  were  limited  to  five  vol 
umes,  "Pilgrim's  Progress,"  "Robinson  Crusoe,"  "Weems'  Wash 
ington,"  a  short  history  of  the  United  States  and  the  Bible.  As  a 
laborer  upon  the  farm  he  was  not  a  success,  because  he  diverted 
his  fellow-laborers  from  their  work  with  his  marvelous  gift  of 
anecdote  and  his  habit  of  mounting  a  stump  and  eloquently  dis 
cussing  the  questions  of  the  day.  As  a  flat-boatman  upon  the 
Mississippi,  he  was  not  a  success,  because,  while  he  was  among 
the  class  which  delighted  to  call  itself  half -horse  and  half -alliga 
tor  in  the  mad  debauches  on  the  route  and  in  New  Orleans,  he 
was  not  of  them.  As  a  keeper  of  a  country  store  he  was  not  a 
success,  because  his  generous  nature  could  not  refuse  credit  to 
the  poor,  who  could  never  pay.  As  a  surveyor  he  was  a  failure, 
because  his  mind  was  upon  other  and  larger  questions  than  the 
running  of  a  boundary  line.  As  a  lawyer  he  was  successful  only 
after  many  years  of  practice,  because  unless  he  was  enlisted  for 
right  and  justice,  he  could  not  give  to  the  case  either  his  elo 
quence  or  his  judgment.  As  a  member  of  the  Legislature  of  Illi 
nois  he  made  little  mark,  for  the  questions  were  not  such  as  stirred 
his  mighty  nature.  As  a  member  of  Congress  he  came  to  the 
front  only  once,  and  then  on  the  unpopular  side.  The  country 
was  wild  for  war,  for  the  acquisition  of  territory  by  conquest, 


104  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

and  for  an  invasion  of  the  neighboring  republic  of  Mexico.  When 
to  resist  the  madness  of  the  hour  meant  the  present,  and  perhaps 
permanent,  annihilation  of  political  prospects,  among  the  few 
who  dared  to  rise  and  protest  against  war,  and  especially  an 
unjust  one,  was  Abraham  Lincoln. 

The  orators  of  all  times  have  had  previous  orators  for  their 
models ;  but  Lincoln  formed  his  style  by  writing  compositions  with 
a  piece  of  charcoal  upon  shingles  or  upon  the  smooth  side  of  a 
wooden  shovel,  and  copying  them  afterward  upon  paper.  In  this 
school,  poverty  of  resources  taught  Lincoln  condensation  and 
clearness,  and  he  learned  the  secret  of  success  in  appealing  to  the 
people — that  is  directness  and  lucidity.  Caesar  had  it  when  he 
cried:  "Veni,  vidi,  vici!"  Luther  had  it  when  he  cried:  "Here 
I  stand;  I  can  do  no  other;  God  help  me.  Amen."  Cromwell 
had  it  when  he  cried  to  his  soldiers:  "Put  your  trust  in  God  and 
keep  your  powder  dry."  Napoleon  had  it  when,  before  the  battle 
of  the  Pyramids,  he  called  upon  his  soldiers  to  remember  that 
forty  centuries  looked  down  upon  them.  Patrick  Henry  had  it 
when  he  uttered  those  few  sentences  which  have  been  the  in 
spiration  of  the  school  books  since  the  Colonial  days.  Webster 
had  it  when  he  said,  "Union  and  liberty,  one  and  inseparable,  now 
and  forever."  Grant  had  it  when  he  said,  "I  will  fight  it  out  on 
this  line  if  it  takes  all  summer."  And  Lincoln  had  it  when  he 
drew  to  him  his  people  and  the  men  and  women  of  his  country  by 
the  tender  pleadings  of  his  first  inaugural,  by  the  pathetic,  almost 
despairing  appeal  of  his  second  inaugural,  and  by  that  speech  at 
Gettysburg  which  made  every  hero,  who  had  died  a  soldier,  again 
in  the  person  of  a  new  hero  created  to  take  his  place  by  that 
marvelous  invocation.  He  expressed  in  a  single  sentence  the 
principle  and  policy  of  the  purchase  of  Louisiana,  and  the  su 
premacy  of  the  United  States  upon  the  North  American  continent 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPEW        105 

when  he  said,  "The  Mississippi  shall  go  unvexed  to  the  sea."  He 
added  to  the  list  of  immortal  utterances  which  go  down  the  ages 
to  lead  each  new  generation  to  higher  planes  of  duty  and  patriot 
ism,  "With  malice  toward  none;  with  charity  for  all." 

The  reception  held  by  the  President  day  by  day  was  a  series 
of  amusing  or  affecting  scenes.  He  at  once  satisfied  and  recon 
ciled  an  importunate  but  life-long  friend,  who  wanted  a  mission 
to  a  distant  but  unhealthy  country,  by  saying,  when  all  argu 
ments  failed,  "Strangers  die  there  soon,  and  I  have  already  given 
the  position  to  a  gentleman  whom  I  can  better  spare  than  you.'* 
But  when  a  little  woman,  whose  scant  raiment  and  pinched  features 
indicated  the  struggle  of  respectability  with  poverty,  secured,  after 
days  of  effort,  an  entrance  to  his  presence,  he  said,  "Well,  my 
good  woman,  what  can  I  do  for  you?"  She  replied,  "My  son,  my 
only  child,  is  a  soldier.  His  regiment  was  near  enough  our  house 
for  him  to  take  a  day  and  run  over  and  see  his  mother.  He  was 
arrested  as  a  deserter  when  he  re-entered  the  lines  and  condemned 
to  be  shot,  and  he  is  to  be  executed  to-morrow."  Hastily  arising 
from  his  chair,  the  President  left  behind  Senators  and  Congressmen 
and  generals,  and  seizing  this  little  woman  by  the  hand  he  dragged 
her  on  a  run  as  with  great  strides  he  marched  with  her  to  the 
office  of  the  Secretary  of  War.  She  could  not  tell  where  the  regi 
ment  then  was,  or  at  what  place,  or  in  what  division  the  execution 
was  to  take  place,  and  Stanton,  who  had  become  wearied  with 
the  President's  clemency,  which,  he  said,  destroyed  discipline, 
begged  the  President  to  drop  the  matter;  but  Mr.  Lincoln  rising, 
said  with  vehemence,  "I  will  not  be  balked  in  this.  Send  this 
message  to  every  headquarters,  every  fort  and  every  camp  in  the 
United  States,  'Let  no  military  execution  take  place  until  further 
orders  from  me.  A.  Lincoln.' 3; 

He  called  the  cabinet  to  meet,  and  as  they  entered  they  found 


1 06  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

Mm  reading  Artemus  Ward.  He  said :  "Gentlemen,  I  have  found 
here  a  most  amusing  and  interesting  book  which  has  entertained 
and  relieved  me.  Let  me  read  from  a  new  writer,  Artemus  Ward." 
Chase,  who  never  understood  him,  in  his  impatient  dignity,  said, 
"Mr.  President,  we  are  here  upon  business."  The  President  laid 
down  the  book,  opened  a  drawer  of  his  desk,  took  out  a  paper, 
and  said,  "Gentlemen,  I  wish  to  read  you  this  paper,  not  to  ask 
your  opinion  as  to  what  I  shall  do,  for  I  am  determined  to  issue 
it,  but  to  ask  your  criticism  as  to  any  change  of  form  of  phrase 
ology,"  and  the  paper  which  he  read  was  the  immortal  Proclama 
tion  of  Emancipation,  which  struck  the  shackles  from  the  limbs  of 
4,000,000  of  slaves.  And  when  the  cabinet,  oppressed  and  over 
whelmed  by  the  magnitude  of  this  deed  about  to  be  done,  went 
solemnly  out  of  the  room,  as  the  last  of  them  looked  back  he 
saw  this  strangest,  saddest,  wisest,  most  extraordinary  of  rulers 
reading  Artemus  Ward. 

To-day  for  the  first  time  since  Lincoln's  death,  the  twelfth  of 
February  is  a  legal  holiday  in  our  State  of  New  York.  And  it 
is  proper  that  the  people  should,  without  regard  to  their  party 
affiliations,  celebrate  in  a  becoming  manner  the  birth  and  the  story 
and  the  achievements  of  this  savior  of  the  republic.  But  it 
is  equally  meet  and  proper  for  us  who  are  gathered  here  as  Re 
publicans  to  celebrate,  also,  the  deeds  and  the  achievements  and 
the  character  of  the  greatest  Republican  who  ever  lived.  This 
party  to  which  we  belong,  this  great  organization  of  which  we 
are  proud,  this  mighty  engine  in  the  hands  of  Providence  for  the 
accomplishment  of  more  for  the  land  in  which  it  has  worked  than 
any  party  in  any  representative  government  ever  accomplished  be 
fore,  has  its  teachings  and  inspirations  more  largely  from  the 
statesmanship  and  utterances  of  Abraham  Lincoln  than  from  any 
other  man.  The  first  speech  he  ever  made  was  a  speech  for  that 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPEW        107 

policy  which  was  the  first  policy  of  George  Washington,  the  first 
policy  of  the  greatest  creative  brain  of  the  Revolutionary  pe 
riod,  Alexander  Hamilton,  the  principle  of  the  protection  of  Amer 
ican  industries.  With  the  keen  and  intuitive  grasp  of  public 
necessity  and  of  the  future  growth  of  the  republic,  which  always 
characterized  Lincoln,  he  saw  in  early  life  that  this  country, 
under  a  proper  system  of  protection,  could  become  self-supporting; 
he  saw  that  a  land  of  raw  materials  was  necessarily  a  land  of 
poverty,  while  a  land  of  diversified  industries,  each  of  them  self- 
sustaining  and  prosperous,  was  a  land  of  colleges  and  schools,  a 
land  of  science  and  literature,  a  land  of  religion  and  law,  a  land 
of  prosperity,  happiness  and  peace. 

Abraham  Lincoln  would  draw  the  last  dollar  the  country  pos 
sessed  and  draft  the  last  man  capable  of  bearing  arms  to  save  the 
republic.  He  would  use  any  currency  by  which  the  army  could 
be  kept  in  the  field  and  the  navy  upon  the  seas.  When  the  peril 
was  so  great  that  our  promise  to  pay  only  yielded  thirty  cents  on 
the  dollar,  he  prevented  the  collapse  of  our  credit  and  the  ruin 
of  our  cause  by  pledging  the  national  faith  to  the  payment  of  our 
debts  and  the  redemption  of  our  notes  and  bills  at  par  in  money 
recognized  in  the  commerce  of  the  world.  The  Republican  party 
stands  for  a  policy  which  will  furnish  abundant  revenue  for 
every  requirement  of  the  government,  and  which  will  maintain  the 
credit  of  the  United  States  at  home  and  abroad  up  to  the  standard 
which  is  justified  by  its  unequaled  wealth  and  power. 

All  hail  the  spirit,  all  hail  the  principles,  all  hail  the  example, 
the  inspiring  example  of  that  man  of  the  people,  that  wisest  of 
rulers,  that  most  glorious  of  Republicans,  Abraham  Lincoln! 


THE  ELEVENTH 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1899 


Address  of 
REV.  MELANCTHON  WOOLSEY  STRYKER,  D.D. 


MELANCTHON  WOOLSEY  STRYKER,  D.D. 

Dr.  Stryker  was  born  in  Vernon,  N.  Y.,  in  1851. 
Graduated  from  Hamilton  College,  1872,  and  from  the 
Auburn  Theological  Seminary  in  1876.  From  1876-92  he 
filled  pastorates  at  Auburn,  N.  Y.;  Ithaca,  N.  Y.;  Holy- 
oke,  Mass.,  and  Chicago;  since  1892  he  has  been  presi 
dent  of  Hamilton  College.  He  is  an  authority  on 
hymnology  and  has  published  several  volumes  of 
hymns  and  poems  and  one  of  sermons. 


ADDRESS  OF 

MELANCTHON  WOOLSEY  STRYKER,  D.D. 


Mr.  President  and  all  fellow  Republicans,  without  distinction  as 
to  present  condition  of  servitude:  Though  it  is  somewhat  out  of 
my  line,  you  will  permit  me  to  remark  that  clubs  are  trumps;  and 
I  suppose  I  should  add  of  them  all  this  club  is  the  ace.  Certainly 
in  the  last  twelvemonth  a  remarkable  hand  has  been  played  for  all 
it  is  worth.  And  the  superiority  of  the  American  lead  to  "bumble 
puppy"  has  been  demonstrated,  and  the  absurd  finesse  from  the 
two-spot  to  a  jack — from  the  platform  to  the  candidate — having 
failed  the  best  hand  has  won  by  tremendous  odds,  with  what 
Charles  Lamb  delighted  in — "A  clean  hearth,  a  good  fire  and  the 
rigors  of  the  game."  Of  a  wise  and  timely  administration  the 
best  pledge  so  far  is  afforded  in  the  appointment  of  that  old  Oneida 
County  boy,  Lyman  J.  Gage,  to  be  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  His 
clear  head  is  mounted  upon  a  first-class  backbone.  He  will  do.  I, 
for  one,  am  thankful  that  Mr.  Speaker  Reed  is  still  at  the  old 
stand,  where  he  can  be  gotten  at  in  1900.  Brighter  days  are  at 
the  door,  empiricism  is  passing.  A  trusty  leader,  with  his  party 
about  him,  shall  carry  us  over  the  glad  threshold  of  the  new 
century. 

But  to  my  errand — the  holiday  and  the  man.  Thanks,  under 
God,  to  him  whose  singular  greatness  is  the  token  of  all  these 
your  greetings,  we  have  a  republic  undivided  and  indivisible. 
Your  name  and  history  is  national ;  so  be  your  sympathies  and  your 


THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 


endeavors.  He  whom  we  are  met  to  celebrate  was  a  Republican, 
and  was  not  ashamed  to  say  so.  Confusion  is  revealed  in  the 
sterility  of  the  hybrid.  Be  it  ours  to  wear  the  name  of  Repub 
lican  as  he  defined  and  ennobled  it,  who  held  party  as  an  instru 
ment,  politics  as  his  opportunity,  patriotism  his  motive,  and  the 
people's  ultimate  truth  his  goal. 

Upon  this  radiant  and  solemn  anniversary  you  are  assembled  to 
relight  the  torch  of  the  wide-awake  and  the  flambeau  of  mourn 
ing,  gazing  through  all  upon  yonder  untorn  emblem,  the  guerdon 
of  our  awful  travail  when  freedom  was  reborn  and  the  guidon 
of  our  forward  marching.  Beautiful  flag !  He  loved  it  and  main 
tained  it.  Dearer  for  his  true  sake!  In  the  crises  and  exactions 
of  the  unrevealed  years  may  the  great  price  of  which  he  was  part 
never  be  forgotten;  may  its  folds  never  be  dimmed  by  dishonor  nor 
its  glory  abated  by  the  recreancy  of  those  nursed  under  its  shelter ! 
Having  beamed  over  broken  manacles,  may  it  never  blush  over 
broken  promises!  From  fort  and  fleet,  from  school  and  capitol  and 
home,  let  it  float  unsullied — the  morning  bloom  of  freedom  and 
equal  justice  to  all  who  hope  because  they  remember.  And  if  by 
foes  without,  or  dire  foes  within,  it&  true  meaning  shall  ever  be 
menaced,  may  it  be  protected  and  lifted  higher  yet  by  hands  that 
shall  take  heart  of  grace  in  recalling  that  knight  of  the  axe  and 
master  of  the  pen  who  made  ours,  whatever  else  it  shall  be,  Lin 
coln's  land. 

Eighty  and  eight  years  ago  his  birthday.  Long  ere  this,  even 
with  no  foreclosure,  he  would  have  died.  How  swift  are  the 
years !  Thirty-six  backward,  and  last  night  the  fair  skies  weeping, 
he  was  saying  his  good-by  to  Springfield  neighbors.  Thirty-six 
years  to-morrow,  and  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  while  hate 
howled  its  impotence,  the  electoral  vote  was  officially  declared. 
Let  not  that  time  of  astonishment  and  trembling  be  named  with- 


ADDRESS  OF  MELANCTHON  WOOLSEY  STRYKER,  D.D.    113 

out  recalling  how  Dix  and  Holt  and  Stanton  stood  fast,  while  Floyd 
and  Thompson  and  the  rest  were  rotting  like  maggots  from  a 
corpse!  And  with  the  true  in  deathless  fame  name  that  last  of 
the  better  Whigs — that  rugged  Virginian — Winfield  Scott,  whose 
loyalty  alone  safeguarded  the  all-important  seat  of  government, 
and  who,  when  Wigfall  asked  whether  "if  for  an  overt  act  he 
would  dare  arrest  a  Senator  of  the  United  States,"  replied :  "No ;  I 
would  blow  him  to  hell!"  Such  determination  sent  the  familiar 
spirits  of  secession  to  their  own  place.  There  was  a  "dread  Scott" 
decision  worth  having. 

Far  more,  gentlemen,  than  we  are  wont  to  realize,  does  the 
dissemination  of  their  whole  biographies  spread  the  influence  and 
perpetuate  the  motives  of  our  lamented  and  departed  leaders. 
Through  all  the  first  half  of  the  century  the  popular  knowledge  of 
Washington  thus  diffused  was  an  incalculable,  however  unrecog 
nized,  force  in  educating  that  loyal  sentiment  lying  back  of  the 
tremendous  resolution  which  the  sixties  registered  and  fulfilled. 
Speaking  of  the  hold  had  upon  him  by  the  story  of  the  Jersey 
campaign,  Lincoln  himself  said :  "I  remember  thinking  that  these 
men  must  have  been  encouraged  by  something  uncommon  to  suffer 
so  willingly." 

The  lately  issued  volume  that  has  gathered  so  much  that  is  new 
and  nearly  all  that  can  be  authentic  concerning  Lincoln's  early 
life  merits  our  fullest  attention.  With  every  item  and  shred  of 
such  a  story  every  American  heart  should  be  familiar.  But  to  my 
thinking  the  numerous  and  various  portraitures,  many  of  them  not 
before  printed,  are  of  pre-eminent  importance.  These  even  alone, 
in  a  sequence  which  clearly  exhibits  the  development  of  his  char 
acter,  contain  the  supreme  biography.  The  last  seven  years  of  his 
life  are  in  those  likenesses;  there  is  the  story  of  the  great  war. 
His  brow  changes  from  1861  to  1864  as  if  under  the  pressure  of 


ii4  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

thrice  as  many  years.  And  under  the  shadow  and  palimpsest 
of  strife  is — peace!  His  representative  responsibility  for  a  people's 
trial  and  doubt  and  victory  is  told  there,  and 

"There  was  manhood  in  his  look 
That  murder  could  not  kill." 

What  a  personality,  and  what  a  story!  How  acutely,  how  ex- 
haustlessly  fascinating  in  its  pathos!  My  poor  sickle  can  only 
glean.  At  first,  as  we  think  of  his  heredity  and  environment, 
we  wonder  how  such  a  man  could  have  issued  from  such  cir 
cumstances;  but,  reflecting,  we  discern  that  those  antecedents  were 
not  accidental,  but  providential,  and  that  the  God  who  intended 
the  result  furnished  the  discipline. 

Sprung  from  the  loins  of  the  people  to  be  their  leader  and  com 
mander,  he  was  one  by  whom  it  shall  always  mean  more  to  be 
an  American  and  a  man!  God  was  the  tutor  of  this  great  com 
moner,  and,  as  he  so  often  said,  "God  knows  what  is  best."  One 
of  that  God's  surprises — his  career — is  a  standing  rebuke  of  all 
dilettante  idleness  and  freezes  the  sneer  upon  the  thin  lips  of 
caste.  He  inherited  his  father's  frame  and  his  mother's  heart  as 
his  sole  fortune.  They  were  enough.  They  gave  him,  as  his  pre 
eminent  traits,  that  courage  and  that  sympathy  which  were  the 
outfit  of  a  peerless  manhood. 

Humanly  speaking,  he  was  never  brought  up — he  came  up  by 
the  hardest  struggle,  dismal  lack  and  stark  necessity.  But  up 
lie  came,  and  up  he  stands  forever,  distinctly  the  typical  Amer 
ican  nobleman.  Let  those  who  would  hold  the  stirrup  of  alien 
underlings  and  play  the  flunkey  to  titular  rank,  however  rank 
its  ignobility,  summon  their  scant  brains  to  consider  this  in 
digenous  soul  and  to  learn  that  no  cradle  of  Plantagenet  or 


ADDRESS  OF  MELANCTHON  WOOLSEY  STRYKER,  D.D.   115 

Hanover,  of  Bourbon,  Hapsburg  or  Brandenburg,  ever  rocked  so 
much  of  immortal  renown. 

Opportunity  for  the  lowliest  to  become  the  loftiest — this  is  the 
lesson  of  that  frontier  hovel.  Spite  of  all  contrary  opinion,  true 
beauty  and  integrity  of  manhood  is  not  incompatible  either  with 
harsh  beginnings  or  with  the  strenuous  exactions  of  affairs.  His 
education,  as  Lincoln  said,  was  "picked  up  under  the  pressure  of 
necessity."  Of  school  attendance  one  year  was  all  he  had.  But 
always  a  learner,  he  came  at  last  in  practical  wisdom  to  be  a 
scholar,  and  to  the  last  day  of  his  life  he  grew  in  mental  and  moral 
stature.  How  must  that  example  of  painful  struggle  toward  self- 
improvement  shame  the  most  of  us!  For  who  of  us  has  made  his 
best  of  those  advantages  for  which  this  backwoodsman  pined  in 
vain? 

His  books  were  chiefly  these:  Burns,  "The  Pilgrim's  Progress," 
Shakespeare,  Weems'  "Life  of  Washington,"  the  English  Bible. 
But  these  he  knew.  Of  the  Bible  he  memorized  much.  Its  style 
and  natural  phrase  were  at  his  large  command,  and  its  supreme 
ideas,  as  well  as  its  elastic  idiom,  gave  power  to  many  of  his  most 
critical  utterances.  This  apparatus  of  education,  gentlemen,  if 
small,  was  not  meagre — allegory,  humor,  moral  imagination, 
dramatic  feeling,  patriotic  history,  folk-lore,  devotion — these  were 
in  those  few  but  potent  books.  He  mastered  his  material,  and 
cne  language  sufficed  him.  No  one  can  ponder  the  substance, 
the  solidity,  the  tact,  the  appeal  of  the  majestic  second  inaugural 
and  not  feel  that  here  was  a  master  of  arpeggios.  Who,  to  take 
an  earlier  instance,  can  consider  his  acumen  and  precision  of 
emendation  in  the  matter  of  Seward's  State  despatch  over  the 
matter  of  the  Trent  affair  and  not  confess  Lincoln  as  "cunning 
with  the  pen"  as  he  was  astute  in  diplomacy?  Carlyle  wrote,  "All 
true  greatness  is  melancholy."  There  ran  through  this  introspect' 


n6  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

ive  soul  a  deep  vein  of  sentiment.  The  sad-faced  child  became  a 
brooding  and  silently  yearning  man.  He  saw  visions  and  dreamed 
dreams.  His  adroit  humor  is  pathetic  as  we  think  how  truly  he 
could  have  said,  after  Desdemona, 

"I  am  not  merry;  but  I  do  beguile 
The  thing  I  am  by  seeming  otherwise." 

There  was  a  minor  note  which  gave  the  people's  heart  a  near 
access  to  him  which  few  had  as  individuals;  for  most  reverently 
we  can  say  that  he,  too,  was  "a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted 
with  grief."  Much  misery  had  taught  him  mercy,  and  there  is 
a  most  plaintive  longing  in  that  admonition  to  his  little  Tad — 
"My  bey,  I  would  have  the  whole  human  race  your  friends  and 
mine."  Lincoln's  love  of  that  poem,  "Oh,  Why  Should  the  Spirit 
of  Mortal  be  Proud  ?"  has  re-written  it,  and  not  for  "Trilby,"  but 
for  his  sake  who  loved  it  dearly,  shall  we  still  sing  "Ben  Bolt." 
Tor  he,  too,  had  his  "sweet  Alice" — long  dead. 

Farmhand,  flatboatman,  store  clerk,  land  surveyor,  militiaman, 
country  lawyer,  then  all  and  at  one  the  heart  and  the  will  of  a 
mighty  party — nay,  of  a  people;  then  the  object-lesson  of  the 
world;  then  the  lament  of  a  generation;  then — immortal!  The 
path  fitted  the  goal.  For  his  sake,  if  for  no  other,  the  Potomac 
and  the  Ohio  and  the  Sangamon  are  the  "three  principal  rivers"  of 
America.  What  a  time  was  that  for  which  he  came  to  his  more 
than  kingdom!  Curtis  said:  "The  world  sneered  as  it  listened 
and  laughed  at  a  republic  founded  upon  liberty  and  afraid  to  speak 
the  word  at  home.  Our  feet  had  slipped  to  the  very  brink  of  the 
pit  and  were  scorched  with  fire."  The  Missouri  compromise  had 
been  repealed,  the  "dread  Scott"  decision  had  seemed  to  make  the 


ADDRESS  OF  MELANCTHON  WOOLSEY  STRYKER,  D.D.   117 

Ship  of  State  a  slave-ship!  The  President's  place,  as  one  has 
sternly  said,  was  vacant,  while  James  Buchanan  drew  the  salary! 

The  Chicago  convention  of  1860  did  not  at  all  realize  what  it 
had  done  in  placing  its  banner  in  Lincoln's  hand ;  but  which  one 
of  all  his  apparent  peers  could  so  have  borne  it?  Neither  he  nor 
the  wisest  could  then  have  comprehended  his  mission  or  its 
grandeur.  But  he  went  on  his  way  "with  firmness  to  do  the 
right  as  God  gave  him  to  see  the  right,"  and  the  common  people, 
who  once  had  nocked  to  listen  to  his  court  pleas,  still  nocked  and 
still  listened  to  their  leader. 

With  what  broad  sagacity  he  composed  that  first  cabinet,  and 
with  what  surprise  they  discovered  the  calm  self-reliance  and  de 
termination  of  their  master!  From  the  onset  his  remarkable  es 
timating  of  men,  his  keen  perception  of  aptitude,  his  dignified 
independence,  his  finality  of  cautious  decision,  stood  revealed. 
No  "boss"  whispered  behind  that  chair  which  some  before  him 
had  occupied,  but  which  Lincoln  filled  successfully.  He  re 
deemed  the  chief  magistracy  from  those  associations  of  mediocrity 
which  a  Tyler,  a  Polk,  a  Pierce  had  imposed  upon  him.  Such 
as  this  unshorn  Nazarite  be  all  our  Presidents  to  come!  Seward 
had  imagined  that  for  himself  to  be  Secretary  of  State  was  to  be 
first  in  the  cabinet  group,  but  he  learned  that  even  he  was  as  a 
boy  driving  with  a  father's  hands  over  his  upon  the  reins!  He 
recognized  the  situation,  as  later  Stanton  also  did — Stanton,  so 
magnanimously  appointed,  and  whose  aifection  was  at  once  his 
own  rarest  honor  and  to  his  chief  the  most  masculine  tribute. 
Would  that  Chase  had  been  as  great ! 

Then  came  the  solemn  "So  help  me  God!"  of  that  fourth  of 
March,  and,  when,  after  the  long  suspense  during  the  first  part  of 
that  deliverance,  the  shout  of  the  concourse  broke  out  in  floods, 
rebuking  the  faces  of  disloyal  hate  that  glowed  about,  this  Union. 


n8  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

knew  that  it  had  found  not  only  an  official,  but  a  man !  As  over 
Israel's  first  king,  "Certain  sons  of  Belial  said,  'How  shall  this 
man  save  us?'  but  he  held  his  peace."  Fast  went  the  strange 
foreboding  days  until  there  came  the  hour  of  that  other  Ken- 
tuckian — Robert  Anderson!  Then  rang  out  the  awful  trumpet, 
and  every  good  hand  was  at  the  halliards.  Tip  went  the  flag  to 
the  watchword  of  John  A.  Dix.  This  city  was  scarlet  with  it  as 
never  since — save  once.  The  Sixth  Massachusetts  marched  out 
of  your  Astor  House  to  the  tune  of  "Yankee  Doodle !"  After  her 
swept  your  own  true  Seventh  to  the  Capitol.  Stephen  A.  Douglas 
declared:  "When  hostile  armies  are  marching  under  new  and 
odious  banners  against  our  common  country,  the  shortest  road  to 
peace  lies  in  the  most  unanimous  and  stupendous  preparation  for 
war!"  There  leaped  the  live  thunder,  and  every  rattling  crag 
of  liberty  answered  it. 

Sounded  out  mightily  the  first  of  those  proclamations  demand 
ing  the  great  price  of  freedom!  From  the  lumber  camps  of  the 
Androscoggin  and  the  Escanaba;  from  the  quarries  of  Vermont 
and  New  Hampshire;  from  the  fishing  smacks  of  Massachusetts 
and  the  spindles  of  Rhode  Island ;  from  the  colleges  of  Connecticut 
and  New  York  and  Ohio;  from  the  mines  of  Pennsylvania  and 
Michigan;  from  the  counting  rooms  of  the  cities  of  Sam  Adams 
and  Alexander  Hamilton  and  Ben  Franklin,  and  cities  a  hundred 
more;  from  the  Adirondacks  and  the  Alleghanies  and  the  far 
Sierras;  from  village  and  prairie  and  lakeside  and  highway,  there 
rose  the  answer  of  the  free — "All  up !"  The  old  Liberty  Bell  that 
had  so  long  slumbered,  found  its  voice  again.  The  giant  was 
awake. 

Froude,  of  whom  Birrel  writes  that  his  "antipathies  seemed 
stronger  than  his  sympathies,"  declared  in  February,  1864, 
"Washington  might  well  have  hesitated  to  draw  the  sword  against 


ADDRESS  OF  MELANCTHON  WOOLSEY  STRYKER,  D.D.    119 

England  could  he  have  seen  the  country  which  he  made  as  we  see 
it  now."  The  trouble  with  some  Britons,  gentlemen  (thank  God 
not  all),  has  been  that  they  spelled  the  word  prophets  with  an 
"f"  and  an  "i."  There  was  another  England— the  England  of  the 
Prince  Consort  and  of  John  Bright.  But  desperate  indeed  were 
those  ransoming  years.  In  1860  we  only  hoped  that  we  had  a 
country.  In  1865  we  knew  that  it  was  more  than  we  had  asked 
or  thought. 

While  the  plough  rusted  and  the  anvil  was  dumb,  one  high  soul 
never  doubted  nor  hesitated.  Leading  always,  even  when  he 
seemed  only  to  follow,  he  was  the  piston  behind  which  the  pulse 
of  the  people  pushed  irresistibly.  Firm,  conservative,  moderate, 
sure,  this  great  emancipator  understood  that  there  is  both  a  time 
to  wait  and  a  time  to  strike.  Too  swift  for  some,  too  slow  for 
others,  his  vast  common  sense,  his  judgment,  that  became  an  in 
tuition,  perceived  both  the  right  word  and  the  right  moment. 
Wendell  Phillips,  whose  electricity  was  so  much  of  it  generated 
by  the  reaction  between  metal  and  vitriol,  called  Lincoln  a  "tor 
toise"  ;  but  Lowell  said  "he  knew  to  bide  his  time." 

At  a  New  Orleans  slave  auction  in  the  forties,  he  had  said  of 
that  devilish  system:  "If  I  ever  get  a  chance  to  hit  it,  I  will  hit 
it  hard."  When  the  hour  struck  he  crushed  it  forever,  and  now 
there  is  none  so  low  but  does  him  reverence.  Can  you  not  see 
him  (when  at  last  the  dream  of  Sophism  was  broken  to  awake 
and  find  itself  empty),  pressing  the  streets  of  fallen  Richmond, 
and  can  you  not  hear  that  aged  negro :  "May  the  good  Lord  bress 
you,  Massa  Linkum"?  Silently  the  great  man  raises  his  hat, 
bows  and  passes  by.  There  fell  the  benediction  of  a  disenthralled 
race,  and  there  responded  the  salutation  of  a  martyr— the  true 
"Moriturus,  saluto"  of  a  gladiator  in  the  Arena  of  Time  and  from 
under  the  shadows  of  Death. 


THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 


What  words,  what  elemental  words,  he  spake — this  uncondi 
tional  man!  What  a  repertoire  is  his  untarnished  phrases  of 
patriotism  and  high  devotion!  His  proclamations  were  battles, 
conclusions,  anthems !  Apt  in  adage  and  apothegm,  his  illustrated 
speech,  so  homely  yet  so  constructive,  was  like  that  of  JEsop,  and 
his  plain  wisdom  was  most  of  all  like  that  of  Socrates.  "I  have 
talked  with  great  men,"  said  Lincoln,  "and  I  do  not  see  how  they 
differ  from  others."  No,  not  in  talk,  in  meaning,  nor  in  wit,  so 
much  as  in  the  will  to  use  it  wisely.  Lincoln  had  that  true 
oratory  which  in  Webster's  words,  "does  not  consist  in  speech,  but 
exists  in  the  man,  in  the  occasion,  and  in  the  subject."  Candor, 
conviction,  clearness — these  were  his;  and  of  him  David  Davis 
said:  "All  facts  and  principles  had  to  run  through  the  crucible 
of  an  inflexible  judgment." 

This  homely  oracle,  though  never  clouded  by  abstractions,  was 
withal  a  supreme  idealist.  He  saw  above  the  storm  the  white- 
winged  Angel  of  Peace,  and  therefore  with  all  his  heart  and  soul 
he  urged  forward  the  necessary  war. 

Having  handled  every  rung  of  the  ladder,  Lincoln  was  in  all 
things  practical.  He  would  jettison  any  theory  to  save  the  fact. 
Intense,  yet  tranquil;  temperate,  yet  unaustere;  bold,  but  never 
rash;  informal,  but  self-respecting;  as  modest  as  resolute,  his  were 
no  footlight  graces. 

He  felt  for  others,  and  plain  men  trusted  him  by  instinct.  Him 
self  walking  upon  hot  ploughshares,  he  smiled  and  looked  up! 
He  loved  the  whole  nation  and  the  whole  nation  now  loves  him. 
In  him  the  South  that  was,  lost  its  ablest  friend,  and  the  South 
that  is,  has  come  to  know  it. 

In  the  study  of  that  lofty  individuality  I  note  first  his  courage. 
Of  desponding  temperament,  he  was  the  stubborn  conqueror  of 
his  own  fears.  That  critical  utterance  concerning  "a  house  di- 


ADDRESS  OF  MELANCTHON  WOOLSEY  STRYKER,  DD.    121 

vided"  recalls  it.  Manipulators  shrank,  time-servers  winced, 
friends  protested,  but  with  all  the  fearlessness  of  Luther  at  Worms 
he  said:  "By  this  statement  I  will  stand  or  fall."  That  declara 
tion  was  at  once  a  war  and  a  peace — peace  with  honor.  There 
this  Atlas  bowed  his  back  to  lift  a  world!  Detraction  and  jeers 
but  steadied  him.  His  was  that  forbearance  which,  in  the  words 
of  Governor  Black's  late  inaugural,  "is  the  highest  proof  of 
courage."  When  the  timid  press  ranted,  raved,  caricatured,  he 
told  the  story  of  the  man  who  prayed  in  a  frightful  thunderstorm, 
"Oh,  Lord,  a  little  more  light  and  a  little  less  noise."  He  replied 
to  nervous  advisers  in  1863:  "Grant  tells  me  by  the  Fourth  of 
July  he  will  take  Vicksburg,  and  I  believe  he  will  do  it;  and  he 
shall  have  the  chance."  It  was  done.  In  April,  1864,  he  put 
his  whole  confidence  in  the  same  Grant,  saying  to  him  as  he  went 
down  to  that  awful  reaping,  "With  a  brave  army  and  a  just 
cause,  may  God  sustain  you!"  When  Early,  in  1864,  checked  but 
not  stopped  by  the  tremendous  resistance  of  Lew  Wallace  at 
Monocacy,  thundered  at  the  very  gates  of  Washington,  Lincoln 
never  doubted,  but  waited  for  the  Sixth  Corps  and  deliverance. 

His  courage  was  rooted  in  his  sublime  faith.  It  was  excep 
tional,  absolute,  grand.  It  moved  mountains.  His  central  power 
was  moral.  Herndon  said,  "His  conscience  is  his  ruling  attribute." 
Mr.  L.  E.  Chittenden  in  his  invaluable  "Reminiscences"  has  col 
lected  in  a  whole  chapter  Lincoln's  own  and  many  words  as  a 
devout  believer  in  the  power  of  the  Highest.  It  should  forever 
stop  the  mouths  of  gainsayers,  whether  infidel  or  theological. 
"Whatever  shall  appear  to  be  God's  will  I  will  do,"  was  his  con 
stant  attitude,  and  than  that  naught  can  deeper  go. 

This  is  of  record :  Upon  the  third  day  after  the  "Peach  Orchard," 
Lincoln  called  upon  the  wounded  Sickles.  Talking  of  the  great 
slaughter,  with  streaming  eyes  the  President  told  of  his  own  as- 


THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 


surance  of  the  result  of  his  praying  in  his  own  locked  room  as 
never  before:  "I  told  God  that  I  had  done  all  that  I  could,  and 
that  now  the  result  was  in  His  hands ;  that  if  the  country  was  to 
be  saved  it  was  because  He  so  willed  it.  The  burden  rolled  off 
my  shoulders,  my  intense  anxiety  was  relieved,  and  in  its  place 
came  a  great  trustfulness;  and  that  was  why  I  could  not  doubt 
the  result  of  Gettysburg."  Others  may  say  for  themselves  what 
they  like  of  that;  I  say  that  this  is  the  demonstration  of  the 
anointed — of  the  Nation's  High  Priest. 

Diplomat,  strategist,  master  of  speech,  monarch  of  occasions, 
humane,  believing,  often  did  he  weep;  but  never  did  he  flinch  or 
falter;  and  when  he  was  not  it  was  with  "abundant  entrance" 
that  he  went  to  find  his  Anne  Rutledge  and  his  Lord!  "Oh, 
piteous  end!"  "Fallen,  cold  and  dead"  the  captain  lies.  That 
face,  with  all  its  rugged  honesty,  its  homely  beauty,  its  lines  of 
leadership  in  suffering,  its  august  peace,  is  gone!  The  long  col 
umns  that  tread  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  with  the  smoke  of  the  great 
sacrifice  behind  them,  shall  not  salute  the  chief. 

But  those  other  squadrons  invisible  that  crowd  the  air — the 
loyal  legious  of  those  who  have  passed  from  the  camp-fire  to  the 
Hosanna,  from  the  blood-red  bayonet  to  the  wreath  of  amaranth, 
"the  great  cloud  of  witnesses" — there  he  is,  passed  over  to  the 
ranks  of  the  immortal  great.  At  its  very  meridian,  snatched  from 
our  skies,  that  soul  shines  on  and  will  shine  "till  the  stars  are 
cold." 

The  completions  of  such  a  life  are  not  withheld — they  are  trans 
fused.  We  are  to-day  what  Lincoln  helped  us  to  become.  That 
God  he  so  trusted  and  served  grant  that  this  may  be  the  nation 
Lincoln  strove  and  died  to  make  it!  His  work  is  not  yet  done. 
That  tale,  fit  for  the  foundation  of  a  mighty  drama,  worthy  of  a 
deathless  epic,  will  never  be  exhausted  while  the  last  American 


ADDRESS  OF  MELANCTHON  WOOLSEY  STRYKER,  D.D.    123 

remains  who  is  a  man.  The  hills  sink  as  we  leave  them,  the  moun 
tains  rise. 

Once  more,  all  true  Republicans,  by  this  immutable  renown 
are  you  bidden  to  that  patriotism  to  which  all  other  narrower 
titles  are  but  subordinate  and  instrumental.  This  people's  man 
certifies  to  us  that  the  republic  must  voice  the  people,  else  it 
shall  sink  into  autocracy,  plutocracy,  oligarchy,  anarchy.  God 
purge  us  of  bad  men  and  their  bad  ways. 

Still  sings  Columbia: 

"Bring  me  men  to  match  my  mountains, 

Bring  me  men  to  match  my  plains; 
Men  with  empires  in  their  purpose, 

And  new  era  in  their  brains; 
Pioneers  to  clear  thought's  marshlands 

And  to  cleanse  old  error's  fen; 
Bring  me  men  to  match  my  mountains — 
Bring  me  men!" 

We  shall  be  just  as  good  a  party  as  we  are  determined  to  be. 
We  shall  have  just  as  good  leaders  as  we  deserve — no  better.  We 
must  summon  to  our  ranks  and  be  worthy  to  keep  there  all  who 
love  our  nation's  truth.  We  must  be  sworn  anew  not  to  sur 
render  our  independence  to  unauthorized  proxies.  We  must  hold 
to  the  most  exact  audit  the  men  we  select  and  trust — to  watch, 
to  cheer,  to  correct,  to  promote  or  to  depose  them. 

"Oh,  Ship  of  State! 
In  what  a  forge  and  what  a  heat 
Were  shaped  the  anchors  of  thy  hope! 
******* 

Our  hearts,  our  hopes,  our  prayers,  our  tears, 
Our  faith,  triumphant  o'er  our  fears, 
Are  all  with  thee." 


THE  TWELFTH 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1898 


Address  of 
HON.  ALBERT  J.  BEVERIDGE 


ALBERT  J.  BEVERIDGE 

Senator  Beveridge  was  born  on  a  farm  in  Adams 
County,  0.,  in  1862;  though  after  the  war  the  family 
moved  to  Illinois.  His  early  life  was  one  of  constant 
struggle  and  privation  in  the  effort  to  secure  an  educa 
tion.  At  fifteen  he  had  already  worked  as  plow-boy, 
teamster,  common  laborer  and  logger;  but  he  managed 
to  attend  high  school  at  Sullivan,  111.,  and  in  1885  grad 
uated  from  De  Pauw  University.  He  read  law  in  the 
office  of  Senator  McDonald;  was  admitted  to  the  Bar 
and  rapidly  made  a  name  for  himself  in  the  conduct 
of  cases.  He  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  best  campaign 
speakers  in  the  Republican  party  and  is  a  frequent 
magazine  contributor.  Since  1899  he  has  been  U.  S. 
Senator  from  Indiana. 


ADDRESS  OF 

HON.  ALBERT  J.   BEVERIDGE 


Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  To-day,  when  the  Re 
publican  party  is  marshalling  its  forces  for  its  second  great  battle 
for  civilization,  it  is  an  inspiration  to  remember  that  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  a  Republican.  He  was  a  Republican  in  order  that 
he  might  most  truly  be  an  American.  He  was  a  Republican  be 
cause  Republicanism  meant  equal  opportunities  for  all — because 
it  meant  the  rights  of  man  reduced  from  theory  to  practice. 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  Republican  because  the  Republican  party 
was  the  first  organization  that  ever  asserted  and  accomplished  the 
nobility  of  labor — the  first  to  put  the  plough,  the  loom,  the  anvil 
and  the  pick  in  the  heraldry  of  honor  and  of  glory.  He  was  a 
Republican  because  the  Republican  party  was  practical — because 
it  changed  dreams  into  deeds,  proposed  as  well  as  opposed,  builded 
where  it  tore  away,  and  destroyed  only  when  destruction  would 
not  be  fatal  to  that  which  should  remain.  This  soul  of  the  com 
mon  people  was  a  Republican  because  Republicanism  meant  the 
nation  triumphant  over  sections ;  because  Republicanism  meant  the 
organized  conscience  of  the  people  guided  by  their  sanity;  because 
it  meant  the  common  man  working  out  the  problems  of  civilization 
through  the  methods  of  conservatism.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a 
Republican  because  he  believed  in  a  national  government  strong 
enough  to  live;  because  he  believed  that  maintenance  of  law  needs 
no  apology;  because  he  believed,  to  use  his  own  words,  that 


128  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

"there  is  no  grievance  that  is  a  fit  object  of  redress  by  a  mob."  He 
was  a  Republican  because  he  was  a  logician  of  progress,  and, 
therefore,  understood  that  a  home  market  is  the  major  premise,  a 
foreign  market  the  minor  premise,  and  American  supremacy 
throughout  the  world  the  conclusion  of  the  great  argument  of 
commerce.  He  was  a  Republican  because,  above  national  pros 
perity,  above  national  peace,  dearer  than  all  besides,  Abraham 
Lincoln  counted  the  honor  of  the  American  people  and  raised  his 
warning  hand  to  Congress  even  when  war  called  out  the  emer 
gency  financial  powers  of  government.  And  our  hero  was  a  Re 
publican  because  the  Republican  party  meant  a  new  hope  to  all 
mankind;  because  in  the  word  Republican,  as  Abraham  Lincoln 
uttered  it,  was  mingled  the  music  of  falling  fetters,  the  songs  of 
toiler  in  factory  and  field,  the  shouts  of  happy  children  made  heirs 
of  opportunity  and  the  anthem  of  God's  plain  people  raised  to  their 
just  estate.  This  was  our  leader — this  is  our  master  still.  Let 
those  who  will  adopt  repudiation's  financial  cr^ed,  embrace  the 
sectional  doctrines  dug  from  Calhoun's  grave  and  accept  the  gos 
pel  of  hate  preached  from  pessimism's  pulpit.  But  "with  malice 
toward  none  and  charity  for  all,"  the  host  of  conservatism,  called 
the  Republican  party,  believing  ever  in  the  eternal  good,  will  re 
ceive  our  principles,  our  policy  and  our  inspiration  from  Abraham 
Lincoln,  the  first  of  Republicans. 

Abraham  Lincoln  is  the  nation's  well-beloved,  and  so  all  men 
write  unto  his  life  their  individual  opinions.  But  we  the  heirs  of 
his  party  and  his  purposes,  have  a  right  to  know  the  truth.  This 
great  achiever  was  practical.  When  preparing  for  his  work  he 
said:  "How  to  do  something  is  the  desideratum."  And,  seeking 
an  answer  he  found  that,  where  manhood  suffrage  prevails,  no 
thought  can  be  written  into  law,  no  purpose  find  fulfillment  ex 
cept  through  that  organization  of  these  who  think  alike,  called  a 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  ALBERT  J.  BEVERIDGE        129 

political  party.  And  so  he  believed  in  this  co-operation,  in  prin 
ciple,  that  brotherhood  of  belief  called  partisanship.  He  was  him 
self  a  partisan — the  partisan  of  a  cause — that  cause  the  saving 
of  a  nation.  All  else  compared  to  that  was  unimportant.  That 
was  why  he  wrote  that  impatient  tempest  of  patriotism,  Horace 
Greeley,  "My  paramount  object  is  to  save  the  Union."  That  was 
the  issue  that  burned  from  every  star  in  the  flag.  Until  that  was 
settled — until  the  nation's  life  was  safe — he  asked  patriots  every 
where  to  forget  everything  but  that  and  become  in  every  election 
the  partisans  of  civilization.  And  to-day,  when  the  honor  of 
American  people  is  the  issue;  to-day,  when  free  institutions  are 
on  trial ;  to-day,  when  questions  that  search  out  the  very  heart  of 
organized  society  are  involved,  the  spirit  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
commands  all  who  agree  on  the  principles  of  conservatism  to  for 
get  incidental  differences  and  strike  together  everywhere  and  al 
ways  until  repudiation,  sectionalism  and  the  spirit  of  class  are 
utterly  exterminated.  Any  issue  that  beclouds  the  issue  of  all 
issues  is  an  instrument  of  defeat.  In  Lincoln's  day  one  issue  was 
supreme — loyalty  to  the  nation.  Had  he  not  acted  on  that,  and 
that  alone,  New  York  to-day  would  have  been  the  port  of  a  sec 
tion  instead  of  a  metropolis  of  the  mightiest  nation  on  the  globe. 

To-day  disintegrations  are  advocated.  Bizarre  beliefs  abound. 
Old  convictions  are  being  unanchored.  And  it  is  time  the  steady 
elements  of  the  American  people  answered  the  command  of  conser 
vatism  to  "Fall  in."  We  hear  of  a  new  Declaration  of  Independ 
ence.  I  prefer  the  old  Declaration  of  the  fathers.  We  need  no 
new  philosophy  of  society  of  politics  to-day.  We  only  need  a 
renaissance  of  common  sense.  The  political  philosophy  of  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  is  guide  enough.  If  you  ask  me  to  state  that  phil 
osophy  in  a  phrase  I  should  answer  that  his  life  spells  out  these 
two  immortal  words,  patriotic  conservatism.  He  knew  that  the 


130  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

conservative  elements  of  the  American  people  are  always  in  the 
majority.  No  matter  what  individual  views  on  incidentals  might 
be,  he  knew  that  the  sight  of  the  country's  imperiled  flag  would 
marshal  those  elements  into  an  irresistible  host.  He  knew  that 
they  need  only  to  see  the  main  issue  and  they  will  respond.  And 
so  out  of  the  men  of  all  parties  who  agreed  on  the  issue  of  integ 
rity  of  the  nation,  Abraham  Lincoln  fashioned  that  splendid  party 
of  conservatism  which  met  the  emergency  of  war  and  won,  met 
the  emergency  of  reconstruction  and  won,  met  the  emergency  of 
resumption  and  won,  met  the  problem  of  national  prosperity  for 
thirty  years  and  solved  it,  and  stands  to-day  strengthened  as  it 
was  created  by  the  conservative  elements  of  all  parties,  ready  to 
meet  the  emergency  of  repudiation  and  industrial  chaos  and  tri 
umph  as  of  old.  Across  the  page  of  events  the  spirit  of  Lincoln 
has  written  the  mission  of  the  Republican  party.  The  mission  is 
conservatism — the  rejection  of  extremes — the  conduct  of  the  gov 
ernment  by  common  honesty  and  common  sense  rather  than  by 
fanaticism  and  revenge.  Conservatism  is  merely  progress  by  the 
processes  of  growth.  It  is  government  by  experience  instead  of 
experiment.  It  is  moderation  instead  of  violence. 

How  does  the  present  situation  require  Lincolnian  conservatism  ? 

On  the  one  hand  the  tendency  of  the  Democracy  of  to-day  is 
toward  destruction.  The  Huns  and  Vandals  among  them  are  on 
the  march.  There  is  an  implied  promise  of  piracy  in  every  utter 
ance  of  some  of  the  leaders.  They  awaken  expectations  which 
nothing  but  the  abolition  of  property  and  the  reversal  of  civiliza 
tion  can  fulfill.  Every  sane  man  knows  that  free  silver  alone 
would  not  quench  the  flames  which  reckless  extremists  are  fanning. 
The  readjustment  of  society  is  the  ultimate  answer  to  the  implied 
question  which  the  new  commune  thoughtlessly  puts  to  civiliza 
tion.  That  is  one  extreme. 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  ALBERT  J.  BEVERIDGE        131 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  abuses  of  capital  which  furnish 
the  pillagers  a  war  cry — improper  uses  of  riches  which  the 
Catilines  use  as  examples  to  discredit  all  wealth;  vulgar  ostenta 
tions  of  money  which  unsheathe  envy  and  whet  hatred ;  a  meddling 
with  the  making  and  the  execution  of  the  laws;  a  controlling  of 
the  natural  laws  of  trade  by  unlawful  devices.  But  these  financial 
developments  are  not  structural  defects.  Free  institutions  are  not 
responsible  for  them.  They  are  merely  a  natural  tendency  de 
veloped  beyond  their  rightful  sphere  and  requiring  rebuke,  regu 
lation  and  restraint.  These  developments  have  no  party,  gentle 
men.  They  use  all  parties  for  their  purpose.  There  are  only  two 
things  in  civilization  which  are  absolutely  non-partisan — a  mug 
wump  and  a  trust. 

What  is  the  policy  of  the  Republican  party  in  this  situation? 
Go,  as  Lincoln  always  did,  to  the  plain  people  and  learn  from 
them.  They  will  tell  you  that  our  policy  is  Lincolnian  conser 
vatism.  Abraham  Lincoln's  plain  people  are  weary  with  both  ex 
tremes.  They  demand  that  the  party  of  Abraham  Lincoln  shall, 
with  one  hand,  take  by  the  throat  that  idiot  Greed,  who  gives 
the  demagogue  his  incendiary  text,  and  with  the  other  hand  take 
by  the  throat  the  demagogue  himself  and  knock  their  heads  to 
gether  until  robbery  is  knocked  out  of  the  one  and  anarchy  out 
of  the  other,  and  common  sense  and  patriotism  knocked  into  the 
heads  of  both.  The  producing  millions  demand  a  truce  to  needless 
agitation.  They  demand  an  opportunity  to  create  prosperity. 
They  demand  that  the  honor  of  the  nation  te  put  beyond  the  reach 
of  the  demagogue  or  fool.  They  repudiate  revenge  as  a  motive 
of  political  action.  They  expect  improper  commercial  develop 
ments  to  be  corrected  without  violating  the  principles  upon  which 
civilization  rests.  They  demand  laws  so  just  and  so  equally  en 
forced  that  the  lips  of  sedition  will  be  padlocked  by  the  peace  they 


132  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

bring.  In  short,  Abraham  Lincoln's  plain  people  demand  Abra 
ham  Lincoln's  conservatism,  and  Abraham  Lincoln's  party  is  here 
to  give  it  to  them. 

The  plain  people!  There  is  the  source  of  Abraham  Lincoln's 
wisdom.  Lincoln,  the  rail-splitter,  and  Emerson,  the  scholar, 
agreed.  The  unprejudiced  instinct  of  the  masses  is  unerring. 
The  common  sense  of  the  plain  people,  who  in  peace  create  the 
wealth,  and  in  war  carry  the  muskets  of  the  republic,  is  ultimate 
ly  an  unfailing  guide.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  one  of  these.  Their 
conscience  was  his  oracle.  Their  thought  was  his  counsel.  He 
preferred  the  matured  judgment  of  the  ploughman,  the  blacksmith 
and  the  merchant  to  the  opinion  of  any  doctrinaire  who  ever 
lived.  And  the  lesson  of  his  life  to  the  party  he  so  loved  is  to 
take  our  orders  from  the  plain  people  who  founded  the  Republican 
party,  and  for  whom  alone  this  republic  is  worth  preserving. 

Abraham  Lincoln  coined  the  phrase  "The  plain  people."  He  be 
queathed  it  to  us,  and  it  is  ours.  It  is  and  shall  forever  be  the 
Republican  party's  shibboleth.  But  demagogues  have  learned  its 
power,  and  used  it,  too,  until,  like  liberty,  crimes  are  committed 
in  its  name  and  its  Lincolnian  meaning  is  obscured.  The  profes 
sionally  miserable  are  not  the  plain  people.  The  "plain  people" 
are  not  those  who  preach  the  gospel  of  despair;  not  those  whose 
trade  is  discontent  and  whose  occupation  is  idleness.  A  man  does 
not  become  one  of  the  plain  people  by  merely  getting  into  debt — 
nor  cease  to  be  one  of  them  by  getting  out  of  debt.  Rags  are  not 
a  necessary  badge  of  the  "plain  people,"  although  a  pauper  may  be 
one  of  them — nor  is  wealth,  although  a  millionaire  may  be  one 
of  the  "plain  people,"  too. 

But  Abraham  Lincoln's  plain  people  are  those  who  understand 
that  labor  is  the  law  of  life  for  all,  be  they  railroad  presidents,  or 
section  hands.  They  are  those  who  believe  in  that  old  phrase,  "the 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  ALBERT  J.  BEVERIDGE         133 

brotherhood  of  man."  They  are  those  who  acknowledge  and  ac 
cept  the  opportunities  of  American  institutions.  The  plain  peo 
ple  of  Lincoln's  love  are  they  who  understand  that  Liberty  did  not 
intend  to  abolish  Labor,  Thought  and  Thrift,  that  blessed  trinity 
that  presides  over  all  prosperity.  They  are  those  who  believe  that 
Nature  should  not  be  repealed — those  who  do  not  expect  law  to 
do  for  them  what  they  should  do  for  themselves.  These  are  the 
plain  people  that  produced  an  Abraham  Lincoln  and  a  Republican 
party,  and  it  is  time  that  those  who  misuse  the  term  should  be 
reminded  of  what  it  means^  and  rebuked  in  the  reminding. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  spirit  of  the  plain  people  incarnate 
and  therefore  he  was  the  spirit  of  nationality  incarnate.  For  the 
plain  people  know  no  sections — they  only  know  American  citizen 
ship.  Sections  only  exist  in  the  minds  of  politicians  too  small  for 
the  nation.  Abraham  Lincoln  knew  that  the  people's  Constitu 
tion  begins  with  "We,  the  people" ;  that  the  people's  nation  "guar 
antee  to  every  State  a  Kepublican  form  of  government,"  and  so 
he  sent  the  plain  people,  wearing  the  nation's  uniform  and  carry 
ing  the  nation's  flag  wherever  the  nation's  Constitution  required  it, 
and  asked  no  treasonable  governor's  permission.  He  taught  the 
American  people  that  the  golden  rule  of  patriotism  is  unity,  This 
imperial  city  is  not  New  York's  alone — she  is  the  pride  of  the  en 
tire  nation.  Your  prosperity  depends  on  the  prosperity  of  the 
American  people.  You  dare  not  be  selfish  even  if  you  would. 
We  hear  men  talking  about  New  York  and  its  business  men  want 
ing  to  injure  the  American  people.  How  absurd!  since  injury  to 
the  American  people  is  suicide  to  you,  and  since  injury  to  you  is 
misfortune  to  them.  Your  wisest  selfishness  is  to  help  the  gen 
eral  welfare.  Whatever  truly  blesses  Nebraska  blesses  New  York 
as  well.  You  are  not  "the  enemy's  country."  New  York  is  too 
great  to  be  anybody's  enemy.  To  be  an  enemy  to  an  American 


134  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

citizen  is  to  be  an  enemy  to  yourself.  We  of  the  Central  West 
would  not  let  you  be  our  enemy  even  if  you  wished  to.  Why? 
Because  you  are  too  useful,  and  because  you  are  an  American 
port.  No  foreign  ship  can  ever  shell  Indianapolis — no  foreign 
force  invade  it.  Yet,  because  we  believe  as  Lincoln  believed,  be 
cause  the  Pacific  Coast  is  our  coast  and  Sandy  Hook  American  soil, 
Indiana  and  the  republic's  heart  is  in  favor  of  coast  defenses  and 
a  navy  that  can  render  every  port  of  the  republic  as  secure  as  In 
dianapolis  itself.  And  I  will  say,  for  the  benefit  of  Mr.  Roose 
velt,  that  we  are  not  only  in  favor  of  the  ships,  but  we  are  in 
favor  of  dry-docks  good  enough  to  hold  them.  For,  although 
we  are  landsmen,  we  know  enough  to  know  that  a  ship  without  a 
dry-dock  is  like  a  man  without  a  wife — it  cannot  travel  far  with 
out  getting  out  of  repair.  If  invasion  should  come  to  you  the 
West  would  give  her  blood  to  help  defend  you,  our  brothers  of 
the  flag,  and  we  prefer  to  help  protect  you  first.  All  this  is  true 
because  at  the  firesides  of  the  West  the  national  spirit  of  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  is  dwelling  still,  and  the  new  sectionalism  has  not 
gangrened  our  hearts.  All  this  is  true  because  the  virile,  un 
spoiled  and  exhaustless  West,  that  gave  you  Morton,  Grant  and 
Lincoln,  is  still  true  to  their  teachings  and,  therefore,  still  Re 
publican. 

Abraham  Lincoln  knew  no  class — he  only  knew  the  people.  At 
tempts  to  divide  the  land  into  sections  and  the  people  into  classes 
is  accursed,  whether  the  time  be  1860  or  1896.  The  Constitution 
says,  uWe,  the  people";  therefore,  whoever  says  "We  are  the 
classes''  is  a  traitor  to  American  institutions.  Classes  in  a  repub 
lic  is  a  contradiction  in  terms.  What  is  the  dividing  line? 
Wealth?  If  so,  how  much?  If  a  man  is  poor  is  he  one  of  the 
masses  ?  When  labor,  thought  and  thrift  have  filled  his  pockets  is 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  ALBERT  J.  BEVERIDGE  135 

he  one  of  the  classes?  If  so,  all  men  may  destroy  the  dividing  line. 
If  not,  there  is  no  line  to  destroy. 

Yet  Lincoln's  name  is  used  to  incite  labor  against  capital.  Let 
Lincoln's  words  rebuke  the  maligners  of  his  thought  and  deeds. 
This  is  what  he  said:  "That  men  who  are  industrious  and  sober 
and  honest  in  the  pursuit  of  their  own  interests  should,  after  a 
while,  accumulate  capital,  and,  after  that,  should  be  allowed  to 
enjoy  it,  is  right."  "Labor  is  the  superior  of  capital,  and  de 
serves  much  higher  consideration";  but  "capital  has  its  rights, 
which  are  as  worthy  of  protection  as  any  other  rights."  That  was 
Lincoln's  idea.  Labor  is  as  necessary  as  food ;  capital  is  as  neces 
sary  as  civilization.  Nothing  but  malevolence  would  create 
hatred  between  them,  or  prejudice  against  either.  It  is  as  in 
famous  to  lay  the  practices  of  financial  pirates  at  the  door  of  cap 
ital  as  it  is  to  lay  the  deeds  of  anarchists  and  outlaws  at  the  door 
of  labor.  Evils  of  wealth  there  are,  and  the  party  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  proposes  to  remedy  them  by  Lincoln's  methods  of  conser 
vatism.  Evils  of  wealth  there  are,  and  the  American  Kobespierres 
propose,  not  to  remedy,  but  to  annihilate  by  reaction  and  revenge. 
The  whole  issue  is  summed  up  in  this:  The  Republican  party 
means  evolution;  the  Democratic  means  revolution.  And  in  a 
republic  there  can  be  no  excuse  for  revolution. 

Lincoln  loved  the  people  so  well  that  nothing  was  too  good 
for  them — not  even  the  truth.  "I  have  faith  in  the  people.  Let 
them  know  the  truth  and  the  country  is  safe."  These  are  Lin 
coln's  words,  spoken  for  this  very  hour.  He  did  not  regard  it  as 
a  criminal  act  to  buy  a  government  bond.  His  chief  financial  con 
cern  was  to  get  them  sold.  He  regarded  the  promises  of  this 
nation  of  honest  men  as  the  most  sacred  things  in  all  this  world, 
He  knew  that  the  faith  of  American  institutions  is  written  in 
the  American  people's  obligations.  Why?  The  bonds  of  a  mon- 


136  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

archy  are  the  promises  of  the  people's  masters;  if  they  default  it 
is  only  another  king  dishonored.  But  the  bonds  of  a  republic 
are  the  promises  of  the  people ;  if  they  default  free  institutions  are 
dishonored.  Abraham  Lincoln  believed  that  the  obligations  of  the 
American  people  should  be  made  the  most  attractive  investment 
and  kept  the  best  security  known  to  man.  So  does  the  Republican 
party.  Abraham  Lincoln  believed  that  they  should  be  sold  to  and 
held  by  the  people;  so  does  the  Republican  party.  Abraham  Lin 
coln  loved  the  people  too  much  to  permit  their  promissory  notes 
to  be  libeled  even  by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States;  and  so  does 
the  people's  chosen  successor  to  Lincoln's  place  and  principles, 
William  McKinley.  If  any  man  doubts  where  the  Republican 
party  stands,  let  him  inquire  where  Abraham  Lincoln  would  stand 
if  he  were  alive  to-day,  and  there  he  will  find  the  Republican  party 
"standing  like  a  stone  wall." 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  as  sound  on  finance  as  he  was  on  liberty. 
He  had  indulged  in  thought  on  the  subject  of  money.  He  had 
read  the  history  of  his  country.  And  history  and  thought  inspired 
this  prince  of  purity  to  use  language  for  which  an  Altgeld  court- 
martial  would  have  convicted  him  of  being  a  hireling  of  the 
money  power.  For  Lincoln  told  Congress  that  redundant  issues 
of  paper  money  had  "increased  prices  beyond  real  values,  thereby 
augmenting  the  cost  of  living  to  the  injury  of  labor,  and  the  cost 
of  supplies  to  the  injury  of  the  whole  country."  These  are  Lin 
coln's  words,  and  their  keenness  cuts  the  heart  out  of  inflation, 
and  inflation  is  all  there  is  of  Bryanesque  finance.  History  and 
thought  had  taught  Abraham  Lincoln  that  inflated  prices  mean  im 
mediate  loss  to  labor  and  ultimate  loss  to  all.  He  had  mastered 
first  principles.  He  knew  that  a  government  cannot  make  money ; 
that  the  only  way  a  government  gets  money  is  to  take  it  by  taxa 
tion  or  to  get  it  by  borrowing;  that  if  the  government  can  make 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  ALBERT  J.  BEVERIDGE        137 

money  all  taxation  is  a  crime;  and  that  if  it  cannot  make  money 
its  credit  is  a  principal  asset.  And,  taking  first  principles  for  his 
premises,  he  stated  the  necessary  conclusion — for  Lincoln  was  a 
logician  and  did  not  stop  on  the  road  of  his  reasoning  to  refresh 
himself  with  his  own  rhetoric — and  become  intoxicated  on  mixed 
metaphors.  He  did  not  understand  this  latter-day  logic  which 
eliminates  the  conclusion  from  a  syllogism,  substitutes  a  philippic 
for  the  syllogism  itself,  calls  the  whole  process  oratory,  and  writes 
quod  erat  demonstrandum  beneath  a  jeremiad.  But  he  stated  his 
conclusion  with  truth's  simplicity  and  said:  "A  return  to  specie 
payments  at  the  earliest  period  should  ever  be  kept  in  view. 
Fluctuations  in  the  value  of  currency  are  always  injurious,  and  to 
reduce  this  fluctuation  to  the  lowest  possible  point  will  always  be 
a  leading  purpose  in  wise  legislation."  That  is  not  the  language  of 
Wall  street,  gentlemen — nor  of  Lombard  street — it  is  the  solemn 
warning  of  the  savior  of  the  country.  And  Abraham  Lincoln  said 
all  this,  too,  when  the  angel  of  war  sowed  fire  and  death  through 
out  the  land,  and  the  nation  bound  up  its  wounds  with  the  money 
of  emergency.  Shall  we  depart  from  his  principles  now,  after  a 
generation  of  prosperity  and  in  a  time  of  profoundest  peace?  By 
our  belief  in  his  wisdom,  no !  We  appeal  from  his  misinterpreters 
to  Lincoln's  very  words.  We  appeal  from  passion  to  reason. 
We  appeal  from  sectionalism  to  nationality.  In  the  name  of  Lin 
coln  we  appeal  to  that  infallible  judge — the  conscience  of  the 
conservative  masses  whom  our  hero  loved  to  call  the  plain  people 
of  the  republic !  With  that  ultimate  judge,  whose  voice  is  indeed 
the  voice  of  God,  we  fearlessly  leave  the  rendering  of  this  decree 
of  destiny. 

Mr.  President  and  gentlemen,  standing  at  the  daybreak  of  the 
twentieth  century,  Abraham  Lincoln's  party  tells  free  institutions 
to  take  courage.  With  his  life  as  an  inspiration,  with  his  prin- 


138  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

ciples  as  a  guide,  we  will,  we  can  know  no  defeat.  We  fight  a 
battle  of  patriotic  affection.  Even  our  opponents  are  our  brothers 
— kinsmen  in  liberty.  We  appeal  to  them  as  did  our  master  "with 
malice  toward  none  and  charity  for  all."  In  our  hearts  there  is  no 
hate.  We  seek  no  partisan  victory  which  does  not  mean  a  healing 
to  the  nation  and  a  hope  to  all  mankind.  We  are  enlisted  in  a 
holy  crusade  of  patriotism.  We  go  forth  as  our  fathers  did  at 
Lincoln's  call,  to  preserve  and  not  destroy.  We  fight  because  we 
love  and  not  because  we  hate.  With  a  past  with  memories  so 
heroic  and  so  glorious,  so  sacred  and  so  sweet  that  mankind  has 
set  them  next  to  the  memories  of  the  Cross — memories  which  that 
old  sword  that  father  left  to  some  of  us  calls  upon  from  our  full 
hearts — memories  of  Donelson  and  Vicksburg,  of  Mission  Ridge 
and  Appomattox  and  all  those  heroic  fields  of  glory — and,  finally, 
with  memories  of  him  whose  name  brings  loving  tears  to  every 
patriot's  eye — of  him,  our  leader,  master,  friend  and  friend  of  all 
mankind — with  memories  like  those  to  chasten,  ennoble  and  di 
rect,  we  turn  our  faces  full  to  the  morning,  ready  to  perform  the 
mission  which  he  gave  into  our  keeping,  "to  bind  up  the  nation's 
wounds,  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne  the  battle,"  and 
to  see  "that  a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the 
people  shall  not  perish  from  this  earth/'  because  it  is  the  wisest, 
safest,  purest,  most  prosperous  and  most  honorable  government 
known  to  man. 


THE  THIRTEENTH 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
EEPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  13,  1899 


Address  of 
REV.  HOWARD  DUFFIELD,  D.D. 


HOWARD  DUFFIELD,  D.D. 

Dr.  Duffield  was  born  in  Princeton,  N.  J.,  in  1854, 
and  is  a  graduate  of  Princeton  University.  Since  1891 
he  has  been  pastor  of  the  "Old  First"  Presbyterian 
Church,  New  York,  and  is  prominent  as  a  pulpit  orator. 


ADDRESS  OF 

REV.   HOWARD    DUFFIELD,  D.D. 


Mr.  President  and  Senator:  It  is  altogether  possible,  sir,  that 
the  developments  of  history  may  teach  us  to  reverse  this  order 
of  address  and  address  you  as  Mr.  Senator  and  after  that  as  Mr. 
President.  It  is  not  popularly  supposed  that  a  canon  of  the  church 
is  a  rapid-firing  gun. 

This  committee  has  touched  me  off  with  very  little  warning 
to  myself,  and  if  the  discharge  should  go  wide  of  the  mark,  or  if 
it  should  prove  a  blank  cartridge,  I  hope  you  will  credit  that  to 
the  committee  and  not  to  myself.  "Brethren,"  said  an  old  negro 
minister,  "I  have  a  three-dollar  sermon  and  I  have  a  two-dollar 
sermon,  and  before  I  preach  I  will  have  a  collection  taken  up  to 
find  out  which  is  most  appropriate  for  this  audience."  The  fact 
is,  that  for  the  present  audience  there  is  nothing  that  can  be  too 
good,  but  to-night,  fellow  Republicans,  you  will  have  to  take  sim 
ply  the  best  that  I  can  hastily  bring. 

The  toast,  as  the  president  of  the  club  has  remarked,  is  an  in 
spiring  one,  and  it  is  also  an  embarrassing  one.  The  very  name  of 
Lincoln  sets  every  drop  of  patriotic  blood  a-tingling.  His  story 
is  the  Iliad  of  our  American  history,  and  when  the  conflict  of 
heroes  upon  the  plain  of  Troy  shall  have  been  forgotten,  many 
a  heart  with  tear-wept  impulse  will  read  the  simple  chronicle  of 
the  life  of  that  humble  man  who  was  honored  of  God  to  equip  this 
great  nation  for  the  mighty  task  to  which  to-day  the  same  finger 


i42  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  God  is  beckoning  her.  I  labor  under  the  additional  embar 
rassment,  fellow  Republicans,  of  never  having  come  in  personal 
contact  with  this  remarkable  individuality.  That  little  cockade 
of  red,  white  and  blue  that  was  pinned  upon  the  lapel  of  my  boy 
hood's  jacket,  the  echo  of  the  awful  guns  that  roared  upon  Sum- 
ter,  the  stately  swinging  tread  of  armed  men  hurrying  into  the 
front  of  battle,  the  shuddering  dawn  of  that  April  morning  when 
the  country  was  plunged  into  sackcloth  by  the  news  that  her  be 
loved  President  lay  dead,  all  these  things  are  recollections  of  my 
earlier  years  that  arise  to  perish  never.  But  it  was  not  my  happy 
lot  to  look  upon  the  face  of  him  who  carried  upon  his  heart  in 
those  faithful  hours,  the  great  destiny  of  this  nation.  And,  gen 
tlemen,  to  those  who  saw  him  then  it  seemed  as  though  the  vision 
of  the  eye  somehow  dulled  the  keener  optic  sense  of  the  soul,  and  as 
we  are  carried  from  him  by  the  passage  of  years  he  is  lifted  into 
clearer  light  and  we  can  mark  with  truer  measure  the  grandeur 
of  his  outline. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  little  known  before  the  Chicago  convention  of 
1860,  when  he  was  somehow  to  become  the  standard  bearer  of  the 
Republican  party  in  the  throes  of  the  great  conflict  which  was  be 
ginning  already  to  make  itself  felt  throughout  the  land.  At  the 
bugle  call  of  the  new  formed  party  there  stepped  down  from  an 
attorney's  office  in  the  far  West  a  gaunt  backwoodsman  who  en 
tered  the  arena  where  Titans  were  stripping  themselves  for  bat 
tle,  and  there  went  up  from  every  quarter  of  the  compass  an  in 
stinctive  cry,  Who  is  Abraham  Lincoln?  And  from  every  quarter 
of  the  heavens  there  ran  back  answers  that  peal  strangely  in  our 
ears  to-night.  Who  is  Abraham  Lincoln?  And  the  East  replied 
he  is  only  an  accident;  he  is  a  creature  of  the  mob;  he  is  lifted 
upon  the  cross  of  an  unreasonable  enthusiasm,  for  all  of  the  dele 
gates  to  the  Chicago  convention  from  these  Eastern  states  were 


ADDRESS  OF  REV.  HOWARD  DUFFIELD,  D.D.  143 

on  their  way  homeward  to  this  seaboard,  trailing  in  the  dust  the 
banner  of  the  Empire  State,  and  they  could  only  see  in  Abraham 
Lincoln  in  that  hour  one  who  had  with  uncouth  hand  dashed  the 
chaplet  from  the  hands  of  the  polished  and  splendid  William 
Seward,  and  they  could  not  but  look  upon  him  as  the  accident  of 
the  hour.  Who  is  Abraham  Lincoln  ? 

And  from  the  West  came  back  the  answer,  he  is  an  experiment. 
His  neighbors  had  taken  his  measure;  his  friends  knew  that, 
though  he  was  as  shell-barked  as  hickory,  he  was  just  as  solid  at 
the  heart  and  just  as  tough  in  every  fibre  of  his  character,  but 
they  also  knew  he  was  all  unused  to  government,  that  he  was 
not  schooled  in  the  niceties  of  the  technicalities  of  diplomacy, 
and  they  knew  that  his  election  had  been  largely  a  victory  of 
merit  and  had  been  due  to  the  pride  of  neighborhood,  that  he  was 
a  new  creation  of  that  then  young  and  rising  West,  that,  feeling 
the  power  of  its  strength,  was  rejoicing  as  a  strong  man  to  run  a 
race.     Who  is  Abraham  Lincoln  ?     And  from  the  South  there  came 
back  the  bitter  cry,  he  is  the  gauntlet  flung  in  the  very  face  of 
our  most  cherished  institutions,  he  is  the  gage  of  battle;  for  re 
member,  when  Abraham  Lincoln  was  nominated  for  the  presidency, 
it  was  that  antediluvian  period  in  our  history  when  the  office  of 
President  was  vacant,  and  a  party  named  Jimmy  Buchanan  was 
drawing  the  salary,  it  was  the  period  in  our  national  history 
when  Adams,  of  Georgia,  arose  in  the  United  States  Senate  and 
declared  he  would  as  soon  kill  the  rest  of  his  slaves  at  the  foot 
of  the  Bunker  Hill  monument.     But  Mr.  Adams  forgot  that  where 
the  Bunker  Hill  monument  stands  American  liberty  was  born, 
and  at  her  very  birth  she  had  strangled  the  twin  serpents  of 
tyranny  and  injustice,  and  that  she  had  been  clothing  herself  for 
all  these  years  with  the  thoughts  and  sentiments  of  freedom,  and 
all  she  needed  was  to  be  aroused  to  plant  her  war-shod  foot  upon 


144  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

the  hydra-head  of  disunion  and  of  slavery.  But  those,  friends, 
were  the  days  when  the  South  was  spoiling  in  its  efforts  after 
compromise,  and  so  the  nomination  of  Abraham  Lincoln  to  the 
presidency  was  regarded  in  the  South  alone  as  the  pretext  for  un 
buckling  the  sacred  girdle  of  our  national  union.  There  was  an 
other  curious  answer  to  this  question,  it  came  from  the  abolition 
ists  in  the  Republican  party  itself.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  not  an 
extremist  and  therefore  political  fanatics  branded  him  as  a  traitor. 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  of  all  things  a  practical  man,  and  he 
stood  in  politics  for  the  best  that  could  be  had,  not  all  that  might 
be  desirable,  and,  therefore,  he  was  anathematized  by  political 
visionaries,  and  that  little  group  of  men  whom  you  cannot  but 
regret,  high  of  thought,  pure  of  feeling,  strong  in  speech,  voicing 
the  emotions  of  their  hearts  through  the  lips  of  Wendell  Phillips, 
great  orator  as  he  was,  shrewd,  shrewish,  able  to  scold  in  periods 
of  polished  rhetoric  and  to  utter  sentiments  that  had  in  them  more 
of  the  venom  of  Xantippe  than  of  the  wisdom  of  Socrates,  when 
he  heard  of  the  work  of  the  convention  said,  "What,  that  wolf 
hound?"  Oh,  friends,  ask  to-day  who  is  Abraham  Lincoln.  Go 
the  wide  world  through  and  ask  any  man  who  believes  in  simple 
manhood  and  bares  his  brow  before  the  grandeur  of  character, 
who  is  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  there  will  spring  instantly  into  the 
mind  a  vision  of  that  well-known  and  widely-loved  face,  that 
massive  brow  on  which  dark  care  seemed  ever  seated,  those  lus 
trous,  deep-set  eyes  with  a  wistful  far-off  look  as  though  they 
pierce  the  minds  of  lesser  men,  that  shaggy  mane  of  unkempt  hair, 
those  cheeks  sunken  and  scarred  with  sorrow  and  with  sacrifices, 
that  jaw  so  strongly  set  and  hinged,  all  uniting  in  features  over 
which  the  cloud  and  sunshine  play  across  the  depths  of  the  un 
fathomable  sea.  And  the  passing  of  years  haloed  that  head  with 
a  more  beautiful  light,  and  we  are  learning  the  truth  of  what 


ADDRESS  OF  REV.  HOWARD  DUFFIELD,  D.D.  145 

Walt  Whitman  long  ago  said,  "Lincoln  is  the  supremest  charac 
ter  upon  the  crowded  canvas  of  this  nineteenth  century." 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  lonely  man.  He  can  be  put  into  no  class. 
He  rises  in  our  history  with  the  hauteur,  dignity  and  grandeur  of 
an  obelisk.  He  is  the  Melchisedek  of  our  story,  with  no  lineage 
and  no  ancestry.  He  towers  above  the  rarely  eminent  men  which 
God  gave  to  his  time.  Bound  about  Mr.  Lincoln  in  his  cabinet 
sat  a  trio  of  marvellous  statesmen ;  there  was  his  courtly  Secretary 
of  State,  Mr.  Seward;  there  was  his  profound  and  sagacious  Sec 
retary  of  Treasury,  Mr.  Chase;  there  was  his  indomitable  Sec 
retary  of  War,  Mr.  Stanton.  Mr.  Seward  was  a  skilled  and  an  ex 
perienced  diplomat,  but  he  simply  learned  that  he  was  only  prime 
minister  after  all  and  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  President.  Sagacious 
and  experienced  was  that  Secretary  of  Treasury,  but  Mr.  Chase  came 
to  learn  that  the  President  was  taking  soundings  in  deeper  waters 
than  his  plummets  could  fathom.  Most  indomitable,  like  a  god  of 
war,  was  that  Mars-like  Stanton,  clad  in  complete  mail,  but  that 
inflexible  resolution,  when  the  kindly  purpose  cf  Mr.  Lincoln's 
views  came  sweeping  down  on  that  iron  plane — the  miracle  of  the 
Scriptures  was  repeated  and  "The  iron  did  swim." 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  privileged  to  have  on  the  field  of  battle  a 
train  of  warriors  worthy  of  being  mentioned  beside  the  royal 
fighters  of  King  David  of  the  old  scripture  days.  There  was  that 
silent,  sphinx-like  man,  whose  tongue  was  still,  whose  sword  was 
eloquent,  whose  deeds  speak  to  the  generations  to  come,  who  fought 
the  fight  of  humanity  in  the  dark  glades  of  the  Wilderness,  and 
who  fought  the  fight  of  the  hero  on  the  lonely  summit  of  Mt. 
McGregor.  There  was  the  gallant  Sheridan,  whose  fiery  heart 
and  earnest  ardor  outran  the  fleet-footed  coursers  of  his  com 
mand;  Sheridan,  that  splendid  cavalier  sans  peur  et  sans  reproche, 


146  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

the  hero  of  the  American  army.  There  was  the  Cromwellian  figure 
of  Grant. 

Mr.  Chairman,  this  splendid  mirage  of  triumph  has  at  last 
reached  the  eternal  sea,  and  its  memory  shall  never  grow  dim  in 
the  hearts  of  the  lovers  of  their  country.  Grand  men!  But  we 
know  now,  whatever  we  thought  then,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  sweep 
ing  a  wider  horizon  and  was  more  nearly  to  the  heart  of  things 
and  understood  better  the  impulses  and  the  issues  of  that  day  than 
these  great  leaders  of  men. 

He  was  a  lonely  man.  He  was  born  to  loneliness  as  a  heritage. 
He  was  a  great  deal  of  the  time  in  the  dim  recesses  of  the  Western 
forests.  He  learned  what  the  wilderness  and  the  streams  could 
teach  him,  and  he  grew  up  far  from  the  conventional  restraints 
of  society ;  he  grew  up  under  conditions  where  nothing  was  recog 
nized  as  worthy  except  inherent  manhood,  and  from  his  boyhood  he 
drew  the  breath  of  loneliness.  He  was  created  with  a  hunger  for 
knowledge,  in  his  coonskin  hat  and  buckskin  suit  he  marched 
back  and  forth  every  day  nine  miles  to  the  schoolhouse.  He 
touched  every  side  of  life  until  he  came  to  be  the  martyred  Pres 
ident.  He  was  a  hostler,  a  surveyor,  a  Mississippi  boatman,  a 
storekeeper,  he  was  entered  in  a  lawyer's  office.  He  was  like 
some  great  pine  tree  that  winds  its  roots  into  a  soil  that  is  little 
but  rock  and  feeding  upon  its  inhospitable  condition  raises  its 
columnar  top  into  the  sky,  defying  the  storm  and  deriding  the 
hostilities  of  the  tempest. 

Let  me  tell  you  about  the  first  speech  that  Mr.  Lincoln  is  said 
to  have  made.  His  friends  thought  he  would  be  a  good  candidate 
for  the  Legislature,  so  they  put  him  into  nomination ;  he  came  from 
his  retreat  in  the  woodlands  to  a  country  town  where  he  was  to 
meet  his  opponent.  As  he  approached  the  town  he  passed  the 
house  in  which  his  antagonist  dwelt.  He  saw  rising  from  the  roof 


ADDRESS  OF  REV.  HOWARD  DUFFIELD,  D.D.  147 

a  thin  spire  of  iron,  and  he  says,  "What's  that?"  "Oh,"  said  his 
friend,  "that  is  a  lightning  rod,"  and  he  explained  the  uses  of  a 
lightning  rod.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  never  before  seen  such  an  ap 
pendage  to  a  dwelling,  and  he  thought  over  it  a  good  deal  until  his 
time  to  speak.  The  man  against  whom  he  was  running  was  the 
first  to  occupy  the  platform,  and  he  addressed  his  fellow-citizens  by 
saying  that  they  would  not  throw  him  overboard  for  this  unknown 
man,  whose  life  they  did  not  know  and  with  whom  they  were  not 
acquainted,  who  had  come  up  there  from  the  unexplored  tracts  of 
the  wilderness.  Mr.  Lincoln  arose  and  said,  "Friends,  you  don't 
know  very  much  about  me.  I  haven't  had  all  the  advantages  that 
some  of  you  have  had,  but,"  he  said,  "if  you  did  know  everything 
about  me  that  you  might  know,  you  would  be  sure  there  was  noth 
ing  in  my  character  that  made  it  necessary  to  put  on  my  house  a 
lightning  rod  to  save  me  from  the  just  vengeance  of  Almighty 
God!" 

There  are  three  great  papers  in  the  story  of  English-speaking 
peoples  that  mark  the  progress  of  the  race.  One  is  the  Magna 
Charta,  and  one  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  one  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation.  The  Magna  Charta  was  produced  by 
a  company  of  belted  knights  with  glittering  steel,  swords  bared, 
with  lances  in  rest;  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  uttered 
to  the  world  by  a  splendid  company  of  scholars,  but  the  Eman 
cipation  Proclamation  was  wrought  out  by  one  lonely  man  sus 
taining  a  burden  that  might  have  borne  to  earth  an  ancient  Atlas. 
It  was  the  time  when  disaster  and  reverse  was  hovering  over  the 
American  arms,  when  the  great  efforts  that  had  been  made  to  go 
on  to  Richmond  resulted  only  in  going  back  to  Washington,  and 
Lincoln,  one  eventful  day,  called  together  his  cabinet.  Said  he  to 
them,  "Gentlemen,  I  have  called  you  together  to  state  to  you  what 
I  propose  to  do."  He  said,  "I  do  not  ask  any  advice  as  to  the 


148  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

doing  of  it,  but  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  hear  from  you  as  to  the 
best  method  in  which  it  may  be  done,  but  I  intend  to  issue  this 
proclamation."  He  then  read  to  them  that  paper  which  he  had 
wrought  out  in  solitude.  A  great  hush  fell  upon  the  company  of 
his  advisers.  Soon  Mr.  Seward  suggested  the  change  of  a  sen 
tence.  Mr.  Bates  said,  "I  think  that  this  will  cost  you  the  fall 
election."  Mr.  Chase  told  how  he  thought  certain  parts  of  it 
might  be  made  stronger.  Mr.  Seward  finally  said,  "Mr.  Lincoln, 
if  you  issue  this  proclamation  just  at  this  present  time  it  will  sound 
like  a  cry  of  despair.  Wait  until  we  have  won  a  great  victory 
and  then  let  loose  this  thunderbolt."  Mr.  Lincoln  then  said,  "Very 
well,  gentlemen,  I  will  wait,"  and  like  Siegfried  in  the  play,  who 
in  the  hollow  of  the  mountain  forged  the  sword  with  which  he 
should  do  to  death  the  dragon,  Mr.  Lincoln  in  quiet  tempered 
that  bolt  with  which  he  was  at  one  blow  to  strike  off  the  shackles 
of  millions  of  souls.  Well,,  by  and  by  came  Wednesday  and  the 
Cabinet  sat  on  Saturday,  and  the  proclamation  went  forth  on 
Sunday,  and  the  sons  of  men  throughout  the  world  shouted  as  if 
they  were  the  witnesses  of  a  new  creation,  for  there  came  to  us 
a  new  heaven  from  which  the  dark  cloud  of  judgment  was  rolled 
back,  and  a  new  earth  that  was  printed  with  no  foot  of  a  slave; 
and  the  Americans  could  say  for  the  first  time  that  their  land  was 
not  only  the  land  of  the  brave,  but  the  home  of  the  free. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  profoundly  religious  man,  he  subscribed  to 
no  particular  "ism" ;  he  enrolled  himself  in  no  special  church.  It 
would  have  been  to  my  thinking  almost  a  false  note  for  this 
unique  and  solitary  character  to  have  done  so.  In  society  he  al 
ways  looked  to  manhood  rather  than  to  etiquette;  in  law  he  al 
ways  consulted  common  sense  more  than  he  did  the  statutes;  in 
prestige  and  in  religion  he  asked  for  a  sincere  heart  more  than 
for  a  mere  creed.  Mr.  Lincoln  refused  to  wear  the  strait-jacket 


ADDRESS  OF  REV.  HOWARD  DUFFIELD,  D.D.  149 

of  a  bigot  who  says  I  am  holier  than  thou,  and  he  just  as  strenu 
ously  refused  to  wear  the  mantle  of  the  fool  who  says  in  his  heart, 
or  he  will  say  it  with  his  lips  if  you  make  it  a  sufficient  financial 
inducement  for  him  to  do  so,  he  will  say  there  is  no  God.  But 
from  the  very  moment  that  he  took  the  cars  at  Springfield  and 
tracked  through  the  snow  fields  of  that  late  springtime  and 
asked  his  neighbors  and  his  whole  people  to  pray  to  God  for  him, 
until  the  hour  when  his  great  spirit  went  back  to  the  Giver  of  it, 
he  followed  the  teachings  of  God  as  though  he  saw  that  pillar 
of  cloud  and  of  fire  at  all  times. 

There  was  a  delegation  that  went  to  Mr.  Lincoln  at  one  time 
in  a  dark  day  of  our  story,  and  they  wanted  him  to  abandon  the 
conflict ;  they  wanted  him  to  give  up  his  unequal  warfare,  as  they 
called  it,  and  restore  peace  to  this  unhappy  land.  His  reply  to 
them  was,  "Gentlemen,  you  remind  me  of  an  experience  of  my 
early  life.  I  was  working  for  a  farmer,  as  a  farm  hand  for  old 
Deacon  Jones.  In  the  middle  of  the  night  I  heard  him  call  to 
me  'Abraham,  Abraham,  get  up,  the  world  is  coming  to  an  end.' J; 
Says  he,  "I  looked  out  of  the  window  in  my  little  attic  room  in  the 
old  log  cabin,  and  I  saw  the  stars  raining  from  their  places  in  the 
heavens,  and  my  heart  gave  way  within  me,  and  I  trembled  with 
fear,  feeling  that  the  judgment  hour  had  come.  But,  gentlemen, 
as  I  looked,  I  saw  behind  that  blinding  meteoric  shower  the  old 
North  Star  shining  just  where  it  always  had  been,  and  the  Dipper 
which  I  knew  was  there  in  all  its  glory,  and  I  came  to  the  con 
clusion  that  the  world  was  not  at  an  end,  and  I  would  steer  by 
the  stars  that  God  had  set  to  remain  in  his  heavens." 

Friends,  we  are  at  an  another  hour  when  opinions  are  divided. 
There  are  those  that  make  the  air  to  quiver  with  apprehension; 
there  are  those  who  tell  us  that  we  violate  the  Constitution  and 
that  we  are  false  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  but  yet 


i5o  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

through  the  shower  of  meteors,  through  the  roar  of  all  the  disturb 
ances  of  this  time,  we  will  still  behold  the  star  of  American  inde 
pendence,  the  star  that  shines  for  the  right  of  liberty,  the  right 
of  political  liberty  and  religious  liberty;  that  star  is  still  fixed  and 
immovable  in  God's  heavens.  By  that  we  steer,  by  the  light  of  it 
our  fathers  saw  over  the  sea  to  lay  the  course  of  the  Mayflower, 
until  its  prow  had  touched  on  Plymouth  Hock.  By  that  star 
Washington  laid  his  course  from  Bunker  Hill  until  it  led  to  victory 
and  Yorktown.  By  that  star  our  martyred  President  guided  his 
course  from  Sumter  to  Richmond.  And  that  star  is  now  sending  its 
beams  into  the  waters  of  a  far-off  sea,  it  has  risen  upon  the  horizon 
of  the  Orient,  it  is  hanging  like  a  beacon  above  those  distant 
islands,  and  its  shining  will  tell  the  world  that  a  new  day,  a  day 
of  liberty  for  man,  has  arisen  upon  the  face  of  the  earth. 


THE  FOURTEENTH 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1900 


Address  of 
HON.  ROBERT  G.  COUSINS 


HON.  ROBERT  G.  COUSINS 

Congressman  Cousins  was  born  in  Cedar  Co.,  Iowa, 
in  1859.  He  graduated  from  Cornell  College,  Iowa,  1881. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1882  and  has  since  been 
in  active  practice.  Since  1893  he  has  represented  the 
Fifth  Iowa  District  and  has  won  prominence  as  a  con 
gressional  orator. 


ADDRESS  OF 

HON.  ROBERT  G.   COUSINS 


In  every  part  and  in  almost  every  city  of  America,  on  this  last 
anniversary  in  the  century  which  produced  him,  a  grateful  peo 
ple  meet  to  pay  their  homage  to  the  memory  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln.  Not  that  it  is  possible  for  human  speech  to  add  to  his  re 
nown,  but  rather  that  we  may  dedicate  ourselves  and  the  nation 
which  he  loved  to  a  better  understanding  of  his  character  and 
to  the  principles  for  which  he  lived  and  died. 

The  nineteenth  century  brings  to  the  threshold  of  the  twen 
tieth,  perhaps  the  greatest  and  most  distinguished  names  ever 
given  to  the  list  of  the  immortals  by  any  single  century  of  human 
progress,  and  chief  of  all  those  names  is  Lincoln. 

Somebody  said  that  the  history  of  a  nation  is  the  history  of 
its  great  men,  If  our  century  has  produced  greater,  better, 
nobler  men  who  have  achieved  more  for  the  human  race  than 
any  other  century,  it  indicates,  if  it  does  not  prove,  the  progress 
of  our  world.  It  is  a  great  thing  to  feel  that  this  is  true. 

The  dream  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  free  government — 
democracy — the  thought  that  civilized  and  enlightened  mankind 
could  govern  themselves,  and  that  security,  progress  and  endurance 
would  attend  that  system.  But  it  was  doubted  by  the  world  even 
when  our  independence  was  achieved,  doubted  when  Abraham  Lin 
coln  was  born,  doubted  when  a  free  people  chose  him  as  Presi 
dent.  The  test  of  rebellion  had  not  yet  been  made.  When  it 


154  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

finally  came,  most  of  the  Old  World's  intellects  volunteered  the 
force  and  influence  of  their  opinions  against  the  possibility  of  the 
unity  and  survival  of  the  republic,  Even  Mr.  Gladstone  expressed 
a  disbelief  in  the  possible  restoration  of  the  Union.  But  it  should 
always  be  remembered  in  justice  to  that  empire  of  the  snows,  ruled 
by  the  Imperial  Czar,  that  when  the  supreme  test  of  Republican 
government  and  human  liberty  was  being  made,  no  voice  of  dis 
couragement  ever  emanated  from  the  Russian  Empire. 

The  problem  of  human  slavery — whether  one  human  being  could 
rightfully  be  claimed  as  the  property  of  another,  was  the  con 
tention  on  which  the  tremendous  test  of  Republican  government 
arose.  Being  a  question  of  both  property  and  morals,  all  the 
prejudices  and  all  the  selfishness  of  human  nature  were  neces 
sarily  aroused.  Destiny  had  not  seen  fit  to  give  the  new  republic 
the  simple  problem  of  solving  the  question  of  its  unity,  identity, 
and  federal  authority  by  a  mere  abstract  interpretation  of  the 
Constitution  upon  the  direct  issue  as  to  whether,  for  any  cause, 
the  Union  might  be  dismembered.  It  seemed  as  though  Infinite 
Wisdom  sought  to  couple  with  the  problem  every  passion  that 
could  come  from  human  avarice,  every  prejudice  that  might  arise 
from  forfeiture,  every  bias  that  material  considerations  could 
arouse.  The  terrible  test  must  be  made  for  all  time  and  with 
every  aggravation  that  could  possibly  attend  it.  To  reach  the 
summit  of  free  government  and  to  there  proclaim  to  all  the  world 
and  for  all  time  the  unity  and  independence  of  the  American  re 
public,  the  pilgrim  of  human  progress  must  bear  the  heaviest  pack 
that  all  the  hands  of  prejudice  and  politics  and  doubt  could  pile 
upon  his  back. 

But  it  must  be  remembered  that  in  our  world  of  strife  and  toil 
and  suffering  and  glory,  nothing  which  is  easy  can  be  great. 

In  the  rumbling  thunder  of  that  approaching  storm  could  be 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  ROBERT  G.  COUSINS  155 

heard  summons  only  for  the  bravest  and  the  mightiest  men.  It 
was  no  place  for  pigmies.  In  the  lightning's  flash  of  the  awful 
hour,  human  intellect,  stimulated  to  intensity,  must  foresee  the 
way  by  which  the  dearest  hope  of  all  the  centuries  could  march 
to  certain  and  enduring  victory,  and  carry  its  cause  into  the  per 
manence  of  the  ages.  Ah,  America,  how  great  shall  be  the  grati 
tude  to  him  who,  standing  in  the  flashlight  of  that  crisis,  shall 
discern  with  certainty  the  way  for  the  new  republic  to  work  out 
its  ultimate  salvation — the  way  for  liberty  to  live — the  course  by 
which  a  nation  torn  asunder  shall  reach  a  perfect  and  enduring 
Union! 

Fifty  years  have  passed  and  gone — half  a  century  since  all  men 
learned  his  name — and  now  we  come  again  as  citizens  of  that 
permanent  and  perfect  Union,  to  voice  our  gratitude  to  him  who 
studied  out  the  way,  to  him  who  said,  "We  shall  nobly  save,  or 
meanly  lose,  the  last,  best  hope  of  earth." 

He  came  into  the  contest  as  a  countryman,  out  of  the  loins  of 
labor  and  from  the  very  heart  of  the  continent.  No  trumpet 
sounded  his  arrival.  No  family  of  pedigree  gave  him  prestige. 
He  had  to  reason  his  way  out  of  the  woods  into  the  world,  out  of 
poverty  into  position,  out  of  politics  into  statesmanship,  out  of 
greatness  into  glory,  and  finally  he  went  from  life  into  the  cal 
endar  of  saints  which  never  happens  except  by  the  unanimous 
consent  of  all  mankind. 

America  first  knew  him  when  he  finished  with  Stephen  A.  Doug 
las.  The  torch  of  his  intellect,  shining  above  all  others,  attracted 
attention.  He  had  driven  Douglas  to  evade  the  tenet  of  his  party, 
that  slavery  was  a  creature  of  the  Constitution,  illimitable  and 
uncontrollable,  and  made  him  say :  "The  people  of  a  territory  can, 
by  lawful  means,  exclude  slavery  from  their  limits,  prior  to  the 
formation  of  a  State  constitution." 


156  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

This  declaration  of  Mr.  Douglas  was  made  in  answer  to  Mr. 
Lincoln's  famous  second  interrogatory  in  joint  debate,  and  it 
ruined  Douglas  with  the  extreme  Democrats.  It  was  heterodox 
for  one  undertaking  to  speak  for  the  Democracy  and  for  slavery 
to  admit  that  slavery  could  be  anywhere  or  in  any  way  impeded. 
The  question  was  propounded  by  Mr.  Lincoln  against  the  advice 
of  all  his  political  counsellors.  They  feared  it  would  give  Mr. 
Douglas  a  chance  to  say  what  he  did  say,  and  thereby  strengthen 
him  with  the  conservative  Republicans  of  Illinois.  But  by  being 
careful,  in  Illinois,  he  became  an  outlaw  in  Mississippi.  Mr.  Lin 
coln  foresaw  this.  He  was  looking  to  the  future  and  to  a  wider 
horizon  than  that  of  a  single  State.  Some  people  thought  that  his 
heart  was  set  on  the  Senatorship  of  Illinois,  but  he  was  talking 
for  the  ages.  He  was  running  for  a  seat  in  that  exalted  place 
at  the  right  hand  of  Infinite  Justice.  He  was  getting  rid  of  Mr. 
Douglas  so  that  the  extreme  Democrats  in  the  coming  presidential 
campaign  would  nominate  a  candidate  as  extreme  and  as  bad  as 
they  were  themselves.  He  was  driving  the  friends  of  human 
slavery  to  their  logical  position,  and  he  was  demonstrating  to  the 
world  the  wickedness  of  that  position.  He  was  serving  the  con 
servative  men,  the  reasoning  men  of  both  parties,  for  the  final  con 
flict  that  was  coming  on  the  wings  of  war.  This  was  fine  work. 
Its  diplomacy  was  worthy  of  a  Talleyrand;  its  reasoning  worthy 
of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

When  he  had  done  with  Douglas  he  was  wanted  everywhere. 
His  reason  had  set  a  torch  upon  the  hilltops.  The  close  of  the 
senatorial  contest  in  Illinois  was  but  the  beginning  of  that  larger 
contest  which  involved  all  States  and  all  the  future.  The  people 
of  the  country  who  had  been  confused  by  constitutional  niceties 
weie  everywhere  repeating  over  and  over  again  the  wondrous 
words : 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  ROBERT  G.  COUSINS  157 

"A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.  I  believe  that  this 
country  cannot  permanently  endure  half  slave  and  half  free.  I 
do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved;  I  do  not  expect  the 
house  to  fall;  but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will 
become  all  one  thing  or  the  other.  Either  the  opponents  of 
slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread  of  it  and  place  it  where  the 
public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ul 
timate  extinction  or  its  advocates  will  push  it  farther  until  it  be 
comes  alike  lawful  in  all  States,  old  as  well  as  new,  North  as 
well  as  South." 

Perhaps  never  were  words  spoken  by  man  which  made  such  deep 
impression  on  the  public  mind.  It  was  a  prophecy  carrying  con 
viction  with  its  very  utterance,  and  everywhere  men  wondered  and 
inquired  among  themselves  "what  manner  of  man  is  this?"  Ohio 
must  have  him  in  the  campaign,  Pennsylvania,  Iowa,  New  Hamp 
shire  and  Minnesota — every  place  in  which  the  light  of  his  un 
rivaled  wisdom  had  proceeded,  called  for  him,  and  as  Lord  Lytton 
said  about  his  famous  Doctor  Lloyd,  finally,  "Abbey  Hill  let  him 
feel  its  pulse."  He  was  invited  to  New  York.  He  came  to  Cooper 
Institute,  and  in  the  presence  of  such  men  as  William  Cullen 
Bryant,  David  Dudley  Field,  and  Horace  Greeley,  he  who  has 
been  mentioned  as  the  "rude  lank  Westerner,"  spoke  to  an  audi 
ence  described  by  the  Morning  Tribune  as  an  "assemblage  of  the 
intellect  and  mental  culture  of  our  city." 

It  was  here  that  he  described  the  friends  of  human  slavery  and 
their  audacity  as  "sinners  calling  the  righteous  to  repentance." 
It  was  here  that  his  genius  gave  him  national  renown  and  his 
logic  unfolded  the  principles  of  the  Constitution  from  its  origin 
ators  and  marked  out  the  way  of  life  for  the  republic,  It  was 
here  that  he  made  it  possible  to  be  President,  and  finally  to  be 
crucified. 


158  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

The  dreaming  child  of  the  Kentucky  woodland,  the  country 
boy  of  Indiana,  the  flat-boat  pilot  of  the  Mississippi,  the  village 
postmaster,  lawyer,  legislator  and  logician  of  Illinois,  the  orator 
and  statesman  of  America,  became  our  President.  In  the  midst 
of  the  dissolving  Union,  standing  before  the  Chief  Justice  who 
was  to  administer  the  oath  of  office,  he  had  to  say:  "A  disruption 
of  the  Federal  Union,  heretofore  only  menaced,  is  now  formidably 
attempted."  And  then  came  the  sentence  which  voiced  the  senti 
ment  of  loyalty  in  America  for  all  time  and  showed  the  metal  of 
this  courageous  and  patriotic  President: 

"I  hold  that,  in  contemplation  of  universal  law  and  of  the  Con 
stitution,  the  union  of  these  States  is  perpetual." 

Then  finally  came  that  matchless  utterance  of  loyalty  and  love, 
that  lifts  the  name  of  Lincoln  into  the  loftiest  place  of  literature: 

"I  am  loath  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but  friends.  We 
must  not  be  enemies.  Though  passion  may  have  strained,  it  must 
not  break  our  bonds  of  aifection.  The  mystic  chords  of  memory 
stretching  from  every  battlefield  and  patriot  grave  to  every  lov 
ing  heart  and  hearthstone  all  over  this  broad  land  will  swell  the 
chorus  of  the  Union  when  again  touched,  as  surely  they  will  be, 
by  the  better  angels  of  our  nature." 

There  have  been  men  who  ruled  in  this  world  by  force  and  arbi 
trary  mandates  and  history  calls  them  great.  But  in  a  republic, 
ruling  power  is  granted  only  by  the  individual  judgment  and  ap 
proval  of  the  millions  which  can  only  be  reached  by  reason.  When 
Abraham  Lincoln  had  finished  his  first  inaugural  and  taken  the 
oath  of  office,  he  had  convinced  the  better  judgment  of  America 
not  only  of  the  justice  of  the  Union's  cause,  but  of  his  pre-eminent 
worthiness  to  represent  that  cause.  His  thought  had  reached  the 
hearthstone,  his  argument  was  on  the  lips  of  countrymen;  his 
love  had  touched  the  hearts  of  loyalty;  his  gentle  spirit  permeated 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  ROBERT  G.  COUSINS  159 

every  fireside;  his  matchless  genius  took  possession  of  superior 
minds;  his  wondrous  reasoning  reached,  like  penetrating  light, 
the  intellects  of  all  the  lands  and  consequently  at  his  beck  and 
bidding  stood  the  grandest  army  ever  organized  upon  this  earth 
from  civil  life — The  Grand  Army  of  the  Union. 

Confronting  it,  there  was  the  greatest  force  "ever  forged  into 
a  thunderbolt  of  rebellion"  against  any  nation.  The  conflict  that 
ensued  was  awful  and  unequaled  in  the  annals  of  our  world.  The 
memories  of  broken  hopes,  of  blighted  love,  of  scattered  families  re 
main  forever  as  the  shadows  and  the  lines  of  care  upon  the  sad 
and  love-illumined  face  of  the  immortal  Lincoln.  Every  sorrow 
touched  his  tender  heart  and  every  sacrifice  that  heroism  gave  its 
country  left  a  scar  upon  his  sorrowful  and  homely  features.  But  in 
all  the  trials  of  that  tremendous  war,  his  judgment  proved  un 
erring  and  his  never-failing  reason  was  the  guiding  light.  His 
was  the  master  mind,  not  only  in  the  matters  of  momentous  pol 
icy  and  statecraft,  but  wisely  practical  in  all  the  details  of  de 
partmental  difficulties.  Not  only  was  he  the  most  unerring  judge 
of  men,  but  wondrous  in  his  judgment  of  maneuvering  and  in 
foreseeing  and  in  planning  for  emergencies.  He  was  perhaps  the 
first  promoter  of  the  Ironclad.  When  he  learned  that  one  of  the 
Confederate  batteries  at  Charleston  Harbor  had  been  made  to  resist 
the  heaviest  shot  by  being  covered  with  bars  of  railroad  iron,  he 
asked  Mr.  Fox,  his  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  what  difficulty 
there  was  in  the  way  of  using  such  a  defense  upon  a  vessel.  He 
was  told  that  naval  officers  feared  that  "an  armor  heavy  enough 
to  make  them  effective  would  sink  them  as  soon  as  launched." 
"But  is  not  that  a  sum  in  arithmetic?"  inquired  the  President. 
"On  our  Western  rivers  we  can  figure  just  how  many  tons  will 
sink  a  flat-boat.  Can't  you  clerks  do  the  same  for  an  armored 
vessel?"  From  the  idea  of  that  conversation  undoubtedly  the 


i6o  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

Monitor  was  built !  The  President  was  the  friend  of  Ericsson  and 
Captain  Worden.  Two  days  before  the  famous  battle  of  the  Moni 
tor  and  Merrimac  he  said,  "I  believe  in  the  Monitor  and  her  com 
mander.  If  Captain  Worden  does  not  give  a  good  account  of  him 
self  I  shall  have  made  a  mistake  in  following  my  judgment.  I 
have  not  made  a  mistake  in  following  my  clear  judgment  of  men 
since  the  war  began.  I  followed  that  judgment  when  I  gave 
Worden  the  command  of  the  Monitor.  The  Monitor  should  be  in 
Hampton  Koads  now,  she  left  New  York  eight  days  ago."  When 
he  was  told  by  Captain  Fox  that  it  was  not  prudent  to  place  any 
reliance  in  the  Monitor,  he  replied: 

"I  respect  your  judgment  as  you  have  good  reason  to  know, 
but  this  time  you  are  all  wrong.  The  Monitor  was  one  of  my  in 
spirations;  I  believed  in  her  firmly  when  that  energetic  con 
tractor  first  showed  me  Ericsson's  plans.  Captain  Ericsson's  plain 
but  rather  enthusiastic  demonstration  made  my  conversion  per 
manent.  It  was  called  a  floating  battery  then ;  I  called  it  a  raft. 
I  thought  then  and  I  am  confident  now,  it  is  just  what  we 
want.  I  am  sure  the  Monitor  is  still  afloat  and  that  she  will  yet 
give  a  good  account  of  herself.  Sometimes  I  think  she  may  be  the 
veritable  sling  with  a  stone  that  shall  yet  smite  the  Merrimac 
Philistine  in  the  forehead." 

On  the  second  night  after  that  utterance,  anxiously  waiting 
with  officers  of  the  Navy,  he  heard  the  joyful  news  of  the  victory 
from  Hampton  Roads.  The  idea  which  was  developed  by  Erics 
son  had  become  the  monarch  of  the  seas  and  revolutionized  the 
navies  of  the  world. 

There  seems  to  be  a  kind  of  affinity  in  great  minds  for  the  sea 
and  for  sea-craft.  No  nation  has  ever  become  great  in  the  world 
of  nations  that  has  not  taken  its  place  fearlessly  and  permanently 
as  a  co-tenant  of  the  ocean.  The  sea  is  treacherous  to  ignorance, 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  ROBERT  G.  COUSINS  161 

to  enlightenment  it  is  kind.  Queen  Elizabeth  used  to  say,  "Quid 
mihi  Maris  scribet?"  "What  does  the  sea  say  to  me?"  On  that 
memorable  Sunday  night,  March  9,  1862,  the  sea  said  to  Abraham 
Lincoln,  "Henceforth  we  shall  be  friends.  The  child  of  your 
mind  has  become  the  master  of  the  mighty  deep."  A  little  while 
ago  the  sea  said  to  President  McKinley,  "Come  this  way."  And 
in  the  gray  dawn  of  the  morning  Admiral  Dewey  carried  the  stars 
and  stiipes,  the  emblem  of  civilization,  by  the  cannon  of  Cavite, 
saying  to  Gridley,  "You  can  fire  when  you  are  ready,"  and  when 
the  smoke  had  cleared  away,  the  world  beheld  the  banner  of  the 
stars  triumphant  in  Manila  Bay.  It  said  to  Sampson  and  to 
Schley,  to  Clark  and  to  Wainwright,  to  Fighting  Bob  and  Praying 
Philip,  "Catch  Cervera  and  I'll  give  your  country  rich  posses 
sions  near  to  Nevis  of  the  Lesser  Antilles,  the  birthplace  of  Alex 
ander  Hamilton,"  and  in  less  than  two  hours  the  sea  gulls  looked 
in  vain  for  a  Spanish  flag !  Such  are  the  exploits  of  the  Ironclad, 
the  child  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  genius. 

Being  himself  great,  he  was  a  judge  of  greatness.  He  recog 
nized  ability  when  he  saw  it.  Therefore  the  greatest  military 
genius  of  the  century  did  not  escape  his  keen,  observing  eye.  He 
watched  the  movement  of  the  Western  army.  He  saw  the  triumphs 
at  Beimont,  Donelson  and  Shiloh.  He  saw  the  army  of  the  Ten 
nessee  with  the  hope  of  all  the  centuries,  trying  to  find  a  way  to 
cross  the  river  with  no  place  to  embark  and  no  place  to  land;  he 
saw  the  final  triumph  at  Vicksburg,  and  with  the  millions  of 
America  he  called  for  General  Grant  to  take  command  of  all  the 
Union  forces.  He  listened  to  some  small  general  enviously  say, 
"Grant  drinks,"  and  then  he  calmly  and  ironically  said,  "What 
does  he  drink?  I  want  to  send  some  of  the  same  brand  to  all 
my  generals."  Henceforth  Grant  was  unmolested,  and  within  two 
years  from  the  time  America  really  knew  she  had  a  Grant,  the 


162  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

banner  of  the  stars  was  shining  on  the  Continent,  the  stars  and 
stripes  were  floating  over  Richmond. 

Abraham  Lincoln  saw  the  final  triumph.  He  witnessed  the 
fulfilment  of  his  mission.  He  carried  out  his  proclamation  of 
universal  liberty.  His  wisdom  bound  together  the  matchless  army 
of  the  Union  which  made  forever  good  the  declaration  of  his  first 
inaugural,  "The  union  of  these  States  is  perpetual."  He  went 
to  Gettysburg,  and  with  his  living  heart  upon  the  hearts  of  com 
rades  dead,  his  lips  pronounced  those  words  of  love  and  eloquence 
that  live  forever  as  the  matchless  gem  of  concentrated  speech  in 
all  our  literature.  With  stockinged  feet  before  the  White  House 
grate,  he  watched  the  flickering  fire  on  many  an  anxious  night, 
just  as  he  had  done  in  old  Kentucky  and  in  Indiana  and  in  Illi 
nois  in  youthtime  and  in  early  manhood,  and  in  fancy  saw  fan 
tastic  figures,  sometimes  droll,  amusing  him  in  lonely  hours,  and 
then  sometimes  he  saw  ambition  in  its  selfish  form  and  hated  it. 
He  saw  the  widowed  mother  and  her  hungry  child;  he  saw  the 
lover  dying  on  the  battlefield  for  country's  sake  and  then  he  saw 
the  face  of  his  betrothed  in  agony  at  home.  He  saw  the  charge 
of  cavalry  and  heard  the  crash  of  death;  he  saw  the  steady  lines 
of  infantry  starting  for  the  cannoned  crest  and  felt  the  shot  and 
shell  that  mangled  human  forms.  And  there  in  the  last,  long, 
flickering  light,  he  saw  the  emblem  of  the  union  carried  to  the 
eternal  heights.  With  sad  but  hopeful  heart  he  laid  his  head 
upon  the  pillow  in  the  mansion  where  Washington  had  slept;  at 
early  morn  he  awoke  from  troubled  sleep  from  day  to  day  until 
'twas  done,  the  mission  of  a  mighty  soul. 

Bone  of  the  bone,  and  sinew  of  the  sinew,  heart  of  the  very 
heart  of  the  American  nation,  incarnation  of  its  spirit,  he  rea 
soned  out  his  course  in  the  darkest  epoch  of  its  troubled,  glorious 
history. 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  ROBERT  G.  COUSINS  163 

The  most  assuring  fact  which  the  twentieth  century  takes  from 
the  last  lesson  of  the  nineteenth  is  this :  In  the  greatest  revolution 
ever  known  upon  this  earth — the  struggle  for  the  unity  and  the 
survival  of  free  government — the  guiding  spirit  of  the  Union's 
cause  and  the  greatest  general  who  bore  his  shield  was  born  and 
bred  and  reared  in  the  average  environment  and  among  the  middle 
classes  of  the  commonwealth,  where  the  illustrious  examples  and 
their  wholesome  patriotic  precepts  are  learned,  revered  and  prac 
tised  by  the  great  majority  of  the  successive  generations  who  con 
stitute  American  citizenship. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  chosen  President  by  the  better  judgment 
of  the  populace  which  his  reason  had  convinced  before  the  actual 
strife  began.  Called  again  by  the  unanimous  voice  of  loyalty, 
when  the  contest  had  practically  ended,  he  sat  securely  in  the  seat 
of  triumph  and  of  glory,  when  the  greatest  tragedy  of  fact  or 
fiction  in  the  annals  of  our  tragic  world  took  him  from  the  vision 
of  mankind  before  their  grateful  hearts  could  hear  his  final  bless 
ing  and  his  benediction. 

I  think  it  was  Theophile  Gautier  who  conceived  in  his  imagina 
tion  a  magician  who  could  exchange  the  souls  of  men.  If  by  some 
magic  power  the  soul  of  J.  Wilkes  Booth  could  have  been  placed 
in  the  breast  of  the  martyred  President,  after  the  fatal  shot  was 
fired,  so  that  it  could  have  gone  to  the  judgment  seat  with  the 
face  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  it  might  have  passed  the  pearly  gates  un 
challenged.  And  if  the  spirit  of  the  murdered  President  could 
have  entered  the  breast  of  that  most  depraved  of  all  assassins,  the 
murderous  hand  might  momentarily  have  been  forgiven  the  great 
est  crime  in  history,  just  for  the  sake  of  keeping  in  our  sad  and 
grateful  world,  even  for  a  little  while,  the  loftiest  soul,  the  sweet 
est  spirit,  it  has  ever  known  in  mortal  man. 


THE  FIFTEENTH 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1901 


Address  of 
HON.  JOHN  N.  BALDWIN 


HON.  JOHN  N.  BALDWIN 

Mr.  Baldwin  was  born  in  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  in 
1858,  and  practised  law  there  until  in  later  life  he  was 
made  General  Attorney  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad. 
He  removed  to  Omaha,  Nebraska,  where  he  died  in  1908. 
A  volume  of  his  speeches  has  been  published  in  that 
city.  His  reputation  as  a  lawyer  and  orator  extended 
throughout  the  entire  West. 


ADDRESS  OF 

HON.  JOHN    N.  BALDWIN 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen:  From  the  prairies  of  the  North 
western  States,  recently  swept  by  the  breezes  of  the  Republican 
victory,  I  salute  you! 

The  work  of  holding  some  States  steadfast,  returning  to  the  fold 
those  that  had  been  lost,  and  making  and  keeping  all  Republican, 
was  accomplished  by  following  the  precepts  and  principles  of 
Abraham  Lincoln. 

Upon  an  occasion  when  Republicans  have  assembled  to  com 
memorate  Lincoln's  birth,  life  and  services,  the  tillers  of  the  soil 
extend  the  hand  of  Republican  fellowship  to  the  master  of  the 
mart  and  bid  me  greet  you !  I  come  as  a  humble  but  earnest  Re 
publican  of  the  rank  and  file,  feelingly  alive  to  the  supremacy  of 
Lincolnian  principles,  to  speak  briefly  of  the  virtues  which  guided 
Lincoln's  private  and  public  life,  founded  the  Republican  party, 
and  which  must  be  followed  in  the  solution  of  future  problems 
and  the  creation  of  future  policies  if  that  party  is  to  long  con 
tinue. 

Abraham  Lincoln  stands  in  no  need  of  a  vindicator  or  a  eulogist. 
"His  life  speaks  its  own  best  eulogy."  There  need  be  no  fear  that 
if  these  commemorations  should  cease,  Lincoln  would  sink  in  pub 
lic  estimation  or  his  deeds  be  lost  in  history.  He  had  received  the 
heart  homage  of  the  world  before  the  beauties  of  his  character 
were  pointed  out  by  the  critical  wand  of  the  orator  or  the  subtler 


1 68  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

insight  of  the  poet.  Not,  however,  until  poets  cease  to  sing  of 
love,  duty,  justice,  simplicity,  sincerity  and  truth,  will  men  cease 
to  talk  about  Lincoln. 

The  hero-worshipper  notes  carefully  the  birthtime,  place  and 
childhood  environment  of  his  idol.  We  are  all  familiar  with 
the  stressful  action  through  which  Lincoln's  character  was  de 
veloped  and  the  strange  frontier  country  in  which  his  imagina 
tion  was  unfolded.  I  believe  the  cardinal  virtues  of  this  life, 
that  have  challenged  the  world's  attention,  were  simplicity,  sin 
cerity  and  truth,  and  I  also  believe  that  the  Providence  of  God 
ordered  and  set  the  scenes  of  Lincoln's  early  pilgrimage  through 
life  to  create,  form  and  fashion  these  virtues.  A  family  of  four, 
a  log  cabin,  no  window,  one  room  and  a  door.  No  furniture  but 
rude  logs.  No  machinery,  but  an  axe.  No  light  but  the  flames 
from  burning  brush.  No  steam,  but  muscle  to  rive  the  rail. 
No  college,  but  Bible  lore,  fairy  tales  and  country  legends.  No 
art,  but  the  field  and  forests.  No  music  but  the  song  of  the  lark. 
No  painting  but  the  sun  dipping  his  golden  plumage  in  the  West. 
It  was  under  these  and  similar  conditions  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  born,  his  character  framed,  his  imagination  formed,  and  his 
noble  and  heroic  soul  entered  on  life. 

Not  by  birth  or  opportunity  was  this  man  made. 

In  the  strange  twilight  of  the  prairies,  unheralded  and  un 
known,  this  grandly  simple  life  began,  and  yet  the  whole  world 
has  heard  the  story  from  his  studies  by  the  log-light  to  the  speech 
at  Gettysburg. 

In  the  solitude  of  the  forest,  in  close  communion  with  nature 
and  nature's  God,  in  the  rude,  humble  toil  of  the  frontiersman,  was 
developed  the  innate  selfhood  of  the  man,  the  power  that  touched 
with  the  glory  of  transfiguration  that  simple,  earnest,  sincere 
man,  as  he  uttered  the  closing  appeal  of  his  first  inaugural. 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JOHN  N.  BALDWIN  169 

To  study  in  libraries,  surrounded  by  works  of  art  and  within 
the  hearing  of  man-made  melodies,  would  have  interfered  with 
that  necessary,  fearless  and  constant  endeavor  after  truth  which 
made  the  hand  of  a  rail-splitter  pen  the  Emancipation  Proclama 
tion. 

We  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  effect  of  his  communion  with  nature 
in  giving  tint  or  shape  to  his  thoughts,  and  how  vividly  he  shaped 
a  simple  truth,  in  his  speech  before  the  Republican  state  conven 
tion  of  Illinois,  in  1856.  He  said: 

"In  1824  the  free  men  of  our  State,  led  by  Governor  Coles,  de 
termined  that  these  beautiful  groves  should  never  re-echo  the 
dirge  of  one  who  has  no  title  to  himself.  By  their  resolute  de 
termination  the  winds  that  sweep  across  our  broad  prairies  shall 
never  cool  the  parched  brow,  nor  shall  the  unfettered  streams  that 
bring  joy  and  gladness  to  our  free  soil  water  the  tired  feet  of  a 
slave;  but  so  long  as  those  heavenly  breezes  and  sparkling  streams 
bless  the  land,  or  the  groves  and  their  fragrance  or  their  memory 
remain,  the  humanity  to  which  they  minister  shall  be  forever 
free." 

Simplicity,  sincerity  and  truth — each  element  necessary  to  the 
existence  of  the  other — so  early  and  deeply  imbedded  in  his  strong 
and  simple  nature,  always  continued  to  be  Lincoln's  noblest  char 
acteristics.  This  great  triumvirate  of  power  and  virtue  kept  step 
with  his  advance,  ruled  him  well,  made  him  the  founder  of  a  great 
party,  the  deliverer  of  a  nation,  and  the  preserver  of  a  Consti 
tution. 

Abraham  Lincoln  would  have  the  truth,  and  the  truth  which 
he  felt  to  be  true. 

Truth,  that  only  one  of  which  there  are  no  degrees,  but  breaks 
and  rents  continually;  that  pillar  of  the  earth,  yet  a  cloudy  pil 
lar;  that  golden  and  narrow  line,  which  the  very  powers  and  vir- 


170  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

tues  that  lean  upon  it  bend,  which  policy  and  prudence  conceal, 
which  kindness  and  courtesy  modify,  which  courage  overshadows 
with  his  shield,  imagination  covers  with  her  wings,  and  charity 
dims  with  her  tears.  There  are  some  faults,  slight  in  the  sight 
of  love;  some  errors,  slight  in  the  estimate  of  wisdom,  but  truth 
forgives  no  insult  and  endures  no  stain. 

I  venture  the  suggestion  that  no  man  will  ever  write  his  his 
tory  and  entitle  it  "The  True  Abraham  Lincoln." 

Abraham  Lincoln!  His  simplicity  and  directness  in  thought,  ut 
terance  and  writing!  He  began  his  studies  with  a  wooden  shovel 
for  a  slate,  logs  and  boards  for  paper.  He  died  the  greatest  mas 
ter  of  prose  ever  produced  by  the  English  race. 

His  sincerity!  Enslaved  by  poverty  and  deprivation,  his  young 
darkly  struggling  heart  longed  for  freedom.  He  died  the  eman 
cipator  of  a  race.  His  truth!  It  can  be  said  of  him,  that  which 
cannot  be  said  of  any  other  uninspired  man,  that  some  there  are 
who  doubt  God,  but  no  one  the  God-likeness  of  Lincoln. 

It  is  not  that  Lincoln  needs  us,  but  that  we  need  him,  that  we 
are  met. 

There  are  practical  uses  of  great  men,  and  when  they  depart 
they  leave  their  character  and  services  as  public  property.  The 
deeds  of  Abraham  Lincoln  will  live  forever.  It  remains  with  us 
and  succeeding  generations  to  determine  whether  his  counsel  shall 
prevail,  for  "the  most  valuable  truths,  though  known,  are  use 
less  if  not  applied." 

If  certain  prophets  and  philosophers  are  to  be  believed,  then  if 
we  were  to  detach  any  arc  or  segment  from  the  total  cycle  of  hu 
man  records  we  should  find  that  it  did  not  at  its  beginning  promise 
or  prefigure  as  much  of  good  or  evil,  happiness  or  misery,  liberty 
or  thraldom,  a  millennial  armistice  or  an  aeon  of  war,  than  the 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JOHN  N.  BALDWIN  171 

present  course  upon  which  the  human  race  has  just  started  to 
take  its  way. 

It  is  said:  That  this  is  no  longer  a  government  fashioned  after 
the  precepts  and  principles  of  Abraham  Lincoln;  that  the  declara 
tion  that  "all  men  are  created  equal"  is  unheeded;  that  capital 
and  labor  are  opposed  and  uncommunicating ;  that  it  is  an  age  of 
mammon  and  machinery ;  that  manufacturers  are  gorged  with  the 
largeness  of  a  plundering  tariff;  that  the  existing  financial  sys 
tem  is  a  conspiracy  against  the  human  race;  that  imperialism  and 
militarism  are  the  spirit  of  the  times,  and  that  forts  are  con 
veniently  located  so  that  a  standing  army  can  suppress  by  force 
discontent  among  laboring  people. 

If  these  conditions  do  really  exist,  they  put  the  state  in  dan 
ger,  and,  if  not  amended,  will  destroy  it. 

If  these  conditions  do  not  really  exist,  but  by  certain  peculiar 
practices,  prophecies  and  platforms  are  made  so  to  appear  to  six 
millions  of  voters,  we  have  a  social  anomaly  which  also  bodes 
peril  to  the  state. 

Let  us  not  deceive  ourselves.  There  are  social  anomalies  and 
phenomena  that  portend  trouble  to  the  republic,  and  the  party  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  is  morally  pledged  to  an  honest  investigation 
as  to  the  cause  and  the  remedy.  Recent  records  show  that  a  party 
in  its  efforts  to  investigate  and  solve  these  questions  and  difficul 
ties,  summoned  the  expert,  rather  than  the  eyewitness;  consulted 
with  prognosticators  rather  than  the  practical;  gathered  men  in 
swarms,  and  under  the  influence  of  its  magnetic  leader  so  charmed 
them  that  they  were  ready  to  receive  "the  stupidest  absurdities  as 
axioms  of  Euclid" ;  a  party  whose  leader  appealed  to  the  sublimest 
declaration  of  independence  and  equality  one  moment,  and  the 
next  to  the  passions  and  prejudices  of  his  auditors;  fulminated 
against  certain  governmental  policies  and  yet  swore  before  the 


i72  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

assessor  that  under  four  years  of  the  administration  of  these  self 
same  policies,  his  estate  was  increased  sixteen  to  one  and  a  frac 
tion  over;  declared  one  day  that  he  "did  not  believe  in  weighing 
the  dollar  against  human  life  and  liberty,"  and  the  next,  weighing 
his  words,  shouted,  "Great  is  Tammany,  and  Croker  is  its  prophet." 
And  yet  the  same  records  show  that  these  schemes,  dreams,  falsi 
ties,  abstractions  and  practices,  destitute  of  everything  but  pro 
portion  in  their  presentment,  received  the  support  and  approval 
of  nearly  one-half  of  the  voters  of  this  country. 

That  such  a  party  with  such  a  leader  and  with  just  such  sim 
plicity  enough  to  confuse,  just  sincerity  enough  to  pretend,  and 
just  truth  enough  to  deceive,  could  thus  be  sanctioned  by  so  large 
a  proportion  of  the  American  people,  almost  passes  belief. 

The  lustre  of  Lincoln's  name  is  our  inheritance  and  if  we  ex 
pect  a  continuance  of  the  happy  consequence  of  his  labors  we  must 
drink  deep  of  the  spring  of  his  precepts,  draw  from  the  copious 
resources  of  his  wisdom  and  move  up  into  the  radiations  of  his 
spirit.  Happy  for  this  people,  happy  for  this  nation,  that  "it  is 
a  provision  in  the  moral  government  of  the  world,  to  hold  out 
constantly  to  mankind  both  the  example  of  virtue  for  imitation 
and  its  precepts  for  obedience,  and  the  moral  constitution  of  man 
is  never  so  depraved  as  to  be  totally  insensible  to  either." 

It  should  be  noted  here  that  Lincoln's  life  was  devoted  to  the 
question  of  slavery  and  its  cognate  questions.  The  paramount 
issue  then  was  the  maintenance  of  the  government  itself — internal 
regulations  were  of  secondary  importance.  The  great,  portentous 
and  momentous  questions  of  finance,  tariff,  capital  and  labor,  and 
the  policy  of  acquiring  and  holding  territory  without  our  borders 
were  not  present  during  Lincoln's  life,  at  least  in  their  present 
proportion.  If  the  proper  study  of  his  life  has  taught  us  anything, 
it  is  that  in  the  solution  of  these  questions  Lincoln  would  have 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JOHN  N.  BALDWIN  173 

brought  to  bear  the  same  methods  and  principles  which  guided 
him  in  the  solution  of  the  great  problems  he  so  grandly  and  so 
successfully  met  and  solved. 

let  us  not  be  discouraged.  Only  search  unweariedly  for  the  truth. 
We  must  not  assume  that  the  power  of  wealth  is  the  cause  of  the 
discontent  of  the  poor,  but  must  investigate.  The  right  distribu 
tion  of  wealth  cannot  be  fixed  by  "swannery."  We  need  a  simpler 
and  finer  contrivance.  In  making  laws  for  the  protection  of  the 
poor  and  the  incompetent,  we  must  not  bring  about  the  death  of 
ambition,  for  ambition  is  the  spring  of  enterprise,  and  enterprise 
the  leading  spirit  of  progress.  Opportunity  must  be  given  to 
great  ability  to  wield  the  power  of  great  wealth.  There  must 
be  protection  for  the  strong  as  well  as  the  weak,  otherwise  the 
arm  of  enterprise  is  paralyzed  and  the  power  of  progress  is  in  abey 
ance.  A  law  which  has  not  justice  for  the  last  dollar  of  the 
millionaire  will  have  no  protection  for  the  orphan's  invested  pence 
or  the  laborer's  savings.  The  best  laws  are  those  which  in  their 
administration  will  "leave  capital  to  find  its  most  lucrative  course, 
commodities  their  fairest  price,  industry  and  intelligence  their 
natural  reward,  idleness  and  folly  their  natural  punishment,  main 
taining  peace  by  defending  property,  by  diminishing  the  price  of 
law  and  by  observing  strict  economy  in  every  department  of  the 
state." 

The  poor,  the  discontented  and  the  distressed,  can  safely  leave 
their  cause  in  the  hands  of  those  who  will  endeavor,  at  least,  to 
determine  it  according  to  the  principles  of  Abraham  Lincoln — he 
who  worked  unselfishly  for  selfish  men,  "in  whose  large  heart  with 
its  large  bounty,  wretchedness  found  a  solacement,  and  they  that 
\vere  wandering  in  darkness  the  light  as  of  a  home,"  he  who  stands 
in  crowned  sovereignty  the  simplest,  gentlest  and  noblest  of 
men. 


i74  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

The  birth  of  George  Washington  was  the  sign  of  American 
freedom;  the  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  its  consummation. 
When  Washington  died  part  only  was  free;  when  Lincoln  died 
there  was  no  slave. 

The  same  spirit  of  civil  liberty  that  animated  Washington  in 
his  struggle  to  make  this  land  free,  and  Lincoln  to  make  every 
man  free,  is  to-day  moving  over  the  waters  of  our  governmental 
life.  It  recognizes  no  limitations  and  has  no  frontiers.  It  will 
move  as  easily  and  as  surely  over  an  ocean  as  it  has  over  state, 
treaty  and  boundary  lines. 

It  may  not  be  in  your  day  or  mine;  but,  as  the  spirit  of  Chris 
tianity  will  some  day  encompass  this  earth,  so  will  the  spirit  of 
civil  liberty  enter  into  the  formation  of  all  governments  and 
control  all  nations. 

In  the  work  of  libertyizing  this  world  the  American  flag  will 
always  be  seen  in  the  lead.  On  whatever  land  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  are  raised  it  will  be  for  Freedom;  whenever  lowered  it 
will  be  for  honor;  and  wherever  unfurled  it  will  be  forever  and 
forever. 

Along  with  the  utterances  of  Abraham  Lincoln  I  place  that  of 
our  President,  fighting  for  peace,  aye,  a  peace-loving  ruler  in  a 
warring  world. 

"Peace  first;  then  with  charity  for  all,  establish  a  government 
of  law,  protecting  life  and  property,  and  occupation  for  the  well- 
being  of  all  the  people  who  will  participate  in  it  under  the  Stars 
and  Stripes. 

"If  these  counsels  or  this  work  be  of  men,  it  will  be  overthrown, 
but  if  it  is  of  God  ye  will  not  be  able  to  overthrow  it." 

We  do  not  know,  but  we  believe,  that  Lincoln's  wondrous  work 
was  done  under  a  higher  guidance  than  ours;  and  it  will  not  be 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JOHN  N.  BALDWIN  175 

overthrown,  because  it  is  of  the  counsel  of  the  same  power  which 
ballasts  the  constellations  while  penciling  the  pink. 

We  do  not  know,  but  we  believe,  that  in  his  last  hour,  when 
"all  the  faculty  of  the  broken  spirit  had  faded  away  into  in 
anity — imagination,  thought,  effort,  enjoyment — then,  at  last,  the 
night  flower  of  belief  alone  continued  to  bloom,  and  refreshed 
with  its  perfume  his  last  darkness." 

We  do  not  know,  but  we  believe,  that  when  death's  cold  kiss 
made  him  dreamless  here  for  evermore,  instantly  he  felt  the 
warm  touch  of  the  Infinite  and  became  immortal! 


THE  SIXTEENTH 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1902 


Address  of 
HON.  JAMES  WILLIS  GLEED 


JAMES  WILLIS  GLEED,  A.M.,  LL.D. 

Mr.  Gleed  was  born  in  Morrisville,  Vt.,  in  1859.  He 
graduated  from  the  State  University  of  Kansas,  1879, 
and  the  Columbia  Law  School,  1884.  Since  1884  he 
has  been  in  the  active  practice  of  law. 


ADDRESS  OF 

HON.  JAMES  WILLIS   GLEED 


Forty  years  have  passed  since  the  inauguration  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln.  His  great  secretaries  and  military  commanders,  his  lieu 
tenants  in  Congress,  his  staunch  allies,  the  war  governors  of  the 
States,  the  great  intellectual,  financial  and  political  leaders  of 
that  far-off  time,  his  friends  and  his  enemies,  both  North  and 
South,  who  could  properly  be  called  his  contemporaries,  are  all, 
or  nearly  all,  at  rest.  Even  the  youngest  of  the  boys  who  fought 
for  and  against  him  begin  to  be  warned  by  the  dimmed  eye,  the 
heavy  ear,  or  the  faltering  step,  that  the  time  draweth  nigh. 

The  President  of  to-day  was  in  his  cradle  forty  years  ago.  A 
new  generation  has  come,  to  whom  the  stress  and  storm  and  pas 
sions  of  the  great  Rebellion  are  but  as  a  story  that  is  told;  and 
even  to  the  oldest  of  my  hearers  the  fife,  the  drum,  the  tread  of 
marching  feet,  the  clash  of  arms  and  the  roar  of  cannon  are  an 
echo  and  a  memory  growing  ever  dimmer  and  more  distant. 

During  these  forty  years  a  thousand  books  have  been  written 
and  published  about  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  ten  thousand  essays 
and  addresses.  His  career  has  been  described  and  his  character 
has  been  analyzed;  he  has  been  placed  and  sung  and  glorified  till 
history  and  philosophy  and  eloquence  and  poetry  are  exhausted 
and  no  new  thing  remains  to  be  said. 

But  while,  as  each  new  anniversary  arrives,  we  can  only  say 
the  old  things,  it  is  fitting  and  proper  that  the  old  things  should 


x8o  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

be  said;  and  it  is  certain  that  they  will  be  said  every  year  more 
simply  and  reverently  and  sincerely.  We  cannot  praise  him;  we 
cannot  glorify  him.  We  cannot  even  describe  him,  no  words  are 
simple  and  majestic  enough  but  his  own.  I  can  think  of  no  com 
memoration  on  an  occasion  like  this  quite  fitting  and  adequate,  ex 
cept  the  Gettysburg  address,  the  second  inaugural,  and  a  few  mo 
ments  of  silent  thankfulness  to  Almighty  God  for  Abraham  Lin 
coln. 

And  yet  we  must  remember  that  such  deep  feelings  of  reverence 
and  gratitude  are  not  native  to  the  human  heart — they  do  not 
come  spontaneously  to  each  new  generation — but  are  born  of  study 
and  reflection  and,  therefore,  it  is  necessary  that  new  books  should 
be  written  and  new  addresses  be  made  and  that  the  old  things 
should  be  said  and  said  again. 

In  the  few  minutes  allotted  to  me  to-night  I  suppose  it  is  not 
very  important  or  material  what  special  features  of  his  career  or 
his  character  or  his  teachings  I  endeavor  to  recall. 

Mr.  Lincoln  in  a  marvelous  way  embodies  the  history  and  char 
acter  of  the  American  people.  The  tragedy  of  his  life,  like  the 
tragedy  of  the  nation's  life,  takes  root  a  long  way  back.  It  was 
in  Virginia  that  the  first  African  slaves  were  landed.  It  was  a 
Virginian,  Colonel  Mason,  who  said,  in  the  Federal  convention: 
"Slavery  brings  the  judgment  of  Heaven  upon  a  country.  As 
nations  cannot  be  rewarded  or  punished  in  the  next  world,  they 
must  be  in  this.  By  an  inevitable  chain  of  causes  and  effects 
Providence  punishes  national  sins  by  national  calamities."  It 
was  another  Virginian,  Thomas  Jefferson,  who  later  said  of 
slavery:  "Indeed  I  tremble  for  my  country  when  I  reflect  that  God 
is  just;  and  that  his  justice  cannot  sleep  forever."  When  the 
national  punishment  came,  it  was  Virginia  that  suffered  most. 
In  Virginia  the  great  tragedy  came  to  an  end ;  it  was  in  Virginia 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JAMES  WILLIS  GLEED  181 

that  the  father  and  mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln  were  born.  Thus 
the  tree  of  healing  springs  from  the  Old  Domain  where  the  na 
tional  disease  was  first  planted. 

It  is,  perhaps,  due  to  slavery  that  his  father  and  mother  can 
neither  read  nor  write ;  that  he  is  shiftless,  inefficient  and  nomadic. 
It  is,  perhaps,  due  to  slavery  that  we  see  the  future  President  born 
as  in  a  manger,  amid  surroundings  most  barren,  hopeless  and  de 
pressing.  No  angel  of  the  Lord  warns  the  shepherds  of  his  ad 
vent.  No  star  comes  and  stands  over  where  the  young  child  lies. 
No  Wise  Men  of  the  East  visit  his  cradle.  And  had  vision  warned 
and  star  directed  and  were  the  Wise  Men  here,  they  could  not  wor 
ship;  they  could  not  believe  that  this  rude  log  cabin,  without 
window  or  door,  on  this  barren  farm  in  Hardin  County,  Kentucky, 
holds  the  savior  of  a  nation.  To  the  Wise  Men  of  the  East  no 
place  more  unlikely  to  cradle  a  great  statesman  than  the  rude 
hovel  of  this  vagrant  "poor  white";  just  as  to  the  Wise  Men  of 
the  West  no  place  more  unlikely  to  cradle  a  great,  rugged,  hu 
mane  man  of  the  people  than  a  mansion  of  a  merchant  prince  here 
in  New  York.  Fortunately  under  our  form  of  government  neither 
Hardin  County,  Kentucky,  nor  New  York  City  is  barred.  For 
tunately  under  our  form  of  government  the  merchant  prince  as 
well  as  the  wandering  pioneer  may  be  father  to  a  president.  For 
tunately  under  our  Constitution  we  can  avail  ourselves  of  wisdom 
and  of  worth  wheresoever  they  spring. 

Regarding  Mr.  Lincoln  the  important  thing  is,  of  course,  to  com 
prehend  what  he  became,  what  he  did  and  what  he  taught;  and 
yet  we  love  to  dwell  on  the  becoming — the  early  processes — and 
to  go  over  the  dramatic  outward  incidents  of  his  life. 

We  follow  him  from  Kentucky  into  Indiana.  We  see  him  at 
school  there,  in  the  open  woods  all  day  and  by  the  firelight  after 
the  day's  work  is  done.  We  take  interest  in  his  college  days;  we 


i82  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

see  him  at  his  athletics  in  that  wide,  leafy,  whispering  gymnasium 
of  his — axe  in  hand — building  him  a  body  of  iron;  and  we  see 
him  in  his  library  with  the  Bible  and  Pilgrim's  Progress  and 
Shakespeare  and  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States;  and  somehow  we  know  that  these 
professors  of  his,  Moses  and  David,  and  Isaiah,  and  Bunyan,  and 
Shakespeare,  and  Washington,  and  Jefferson,  and  the  Great  World 
of  Nature  and  the  Human  Struggle  and  Suffering,  are  never  in 
the  future  to  be  anywise  ashamed  of  their  handiwork. 

In  1830  we  see  him  moving  his  family,  with  their  scant  and 
meagre  chattels,  westward  to  Illinois;  we  see  him  on  his  southern 
journey  floating  slowly  down  to  his  first  shuddering  contact 
with  human  slavery — that  thing  which  he  said  "had  and  con 
tinually  exercised  the  power  of  making  him  miserable."  We  see 
him  hunting  his  place  in  the  world  of  work;  he  is  a  farm  laborer, 
a  flat-boatman,  a  clerk,  a  small  merchant.  He  meditates  becoming 
a  blacksmith.  He  is  a  captain  in  the  Black  Hawk  War.  He  be 
comes  a  surveyor  and  a  postmaster,  and  finally  devotes  himself  to 
the  study  and  practice  of  the  law. 

We  see  him  lifted  and  ennobled  by  the  joy  and  the  pain  of  a 
great  and  tender  love.  How  pathetic  the  story  of  Ann  Eutledge! 
He  stands  by  her  dying  bed;  he  follows  her  to  the  grave;  darkness 
overwhelms  him;  he  sits  at  night  with  a  friend,,  unnerved,  trem 
bling,  tears  trickling  through  his  fingers,  racked  with  the  thought 
of  the  snow  and  the  rain  upon  the  grave;  for  months  he  is  on  the 
verge  of  insanity;  and  the  shadow  is  on  his  face  and  the  melan 
choly  is  in  his  eyes  that  are  to  remain  there  and  grow  deeper  to 
the  end. 

Always  after  this  we  feel  the  man  to  be  above  and  outside  the 
things  he  is  doing,  and  apart  from  them.  He  does  not  seem 
ambitious.  He  does  not  seem  to  struggle.  He  seems  to  move  pa- 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JAMES  WILLIS  GLEED  183 

tiently  forward,  faithfully  performing  the  tasks  as  they  come.  He 
serves  in  the  Legislature;  he  practises  law;  he  is  elected  one  term 
to  Congress;  he  finds  it  disappointing;  he  applies  for  the  General 
Land  Office;  and  is  refused;  he  goes  back  to  the  practice  of  his 
profession,  giving  up  politics,  as  he  thinks,  for  all  time. 

And  now,  after  a  considerable  interval  of  quiet  professional  life, 
comes  an  ominous  and  fateful  year.  The  period  of  mutual  re 
straint,  North  and  South,  is  at  an  end;  slavery  must  be  extended 
and  live,  or  it  must  be  restricted  and  die ;  the  Missouri  Compromise 
is  repealed  and  the  great  battle  is  begun. 

Fifty-four  marks  the  beginning  of  the  last  decade  of  Lincoln's 
life.  It  marks  the  beginning  of  his  ministry.  Now  we  are  to 
find  what  manner  of  man  he  has  become  and  what  place  he  is 
to  hold  in  the  history  of  the  nation  and  of  the  world. 

Biography  should  be  read  backward — first  find  what  at  ma 
turity  a  man  was  and  did — all  else  is  incidental — and  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  should  begin  here.  From  this  on,  he  stands  always  in  the 
white  light.  From  this  on,  we  can  see  ourselves  the  great,  patient 
purpose  driving,  the  great  intellect  executing,  the  great  heart  suf 
fering.  From  this  on,  we  need  take  no  man's  word  for  him;  we 
may  study  Lincoln  direct;  we  have  an  authentic  record — twelve 
hundred  printed  pages  of  his  own  words — his  letters,  speeches, 
messages  and  proclamations. 

And  what  a  marvelous  record  it  is.  Let  any  young  American 
of  this  or  future  generations,  who  seeks  the  true  image,  the  un 
broken  melody,  take  up  this  record  first — and  last.  And  if  he 
shall  come  to  the  task  a  little  skeptical;  if  his  observation  in  a 
peaceful  and  progressive  age  shall  have  taught  him  that  things 
are  not  always  what  they  seem,  that  high  power  and  high  char 
acter  are  not  always  found  in  high  places,  that  reputations  are 
sometimes  manufactured;  that  public  opinion  is  often  wrong;  if 


1 84  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

he  shall  come  to  the  task  in  a  spirit  tinged  with  cynicism;  with 
a  vague  impression  or  suspicion  that  Lincoln's  place  in  history 
and  his  hold  on  human  hearts  was  won  by  a  mere  shrewd,  good- 
natured,  story-telling  politician;  that  his  nomination  was  in  part 
an  accident  and  in  part  a  compromise ;  that  some  or  many  of  his  do 
ings  and  sayings  will  have  to  be  apologized  for;  that  he  was  a 
man  who  drifted  with  the  current  and  who  happened  to  be  at  the 
head  of  affairs  during  a  highly  critical  period ;  that  under  pressure 
he  developed  good  capacities,  but  that  he  was  so  placed  as  to  reap 
the  glory  of  other  people's  achievements;  that  the  manner  of  his 
death,  and  the  time  of  it,  set  a  halo  and  mystic  glory  around  him 
which  make  just  criticism  and  sound  judgment  impossible — if,  I 
say,  the  young  American  of  this  or  any  future  generation  shall 
sit  down  to  read  that  record  with  such  prepossessions,  or  with 
any  of  them,  he  will  rise  up  ashamed.  He  will  rise  up  with  the 
feeling  that  those  twelve  hundred  pages,  recording  the  thoughts, 
feelings,  purposes,  triumphs  and  sufferings  of  the  last  decade  of 
Lincoln's  life,  make  a  book  matchless  since  the  Bible.  It  will  be 
to  him  like  a  spiritual  baptism — a  new  birth.  And  ever  there 
after,  when  he  listens  to  the  words  of  any  man,  however  great, 
however  eloquent,  about  Lincoln,  he  will  feel  that  he  has  the  meas 
ure  of  the  speaker  or  the  writer,  perhaps,  but  never  the  measure 
of  Lincoln.  He  will  feel  ever  more  deeply  that  Lincoln,  looked  at 
through  the  eyes  of  any  man  however  sympathetic,  is  simply  Lin 
coln  diminished,  Lincoln  lessened;  and  he  will  turn  back  unsat 
isfied  to  Lincoln's  own  printed  pages  and  recorded  words. 

Oh,  the  strength  and  the  grandeur  of  that  record!  Oh,  the 
beauty,  the  gentleness,  the  tenderness  of  it !  It  seems  to-day  forty 
years  after,  fresh-wet  with  tears;  the  blood  stains  are  not  dry; 
the  prayers  still  beat  up  to  Heaven — or  are  but  just  now  hushed ! 
The  meanest  of  us  rises  from  it  awe-stricken,  with  bated  breath, 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JAMES  WILLIS  GLEED  185 

humbled,  comforted,  inspired — with  something  of  that  heroic 
heart  new-growing  in  his  own;  with  something  of  those  melan 
choly  eyes  new-shadowed  in  his,  with  something  of  that  dauntless 
courage  and  invincible  purpose  knitting  itself  into  his  innermost 
being.  There  shines  the  mind,  there  throbs  the  heart,  there  moves 
the  divine,  undeviating  purpose !  Twelve  hundred  pages  of  words 
pressed  out  like  drops  of  blood  and  sweat  by  a  great  civil  strug 
gle — burned  out  in  the  fiery  furnace  of  war!  No  hatred,  no  scorn, 
no  pride,  no  exultation,  no  selfishness,  no  weakness  of  any  kind 
anywhere  to  be  found!  Every  page  with  something  to  moisten 
the  eye,  to  stiifen  the  will,  to  exalt  the  aspirations,  to  illumine  the 
intellect,  to  set  the  heart  throbbing  or  the  nerves  tingling!  On 
every  page  some  sentence  that  flashes  like  a  searchlight  or  rings 
like  a  rifle-shot.  No  other  such  record  is  to  be  found  in  all  lit 
erature. 

In  1860,  just  after  the  Republican  national  convention,  Mr. 
Beecher  said  to  Mr.  Raymond  of  the  Times,  "Your  candidate 
(Seward)  would  not  do  in  a  crisis  like  this ;  he  has  too  much  head, 
and  too  little  heart."  "And  yours,"  said  Raymond,  "has,  I  fear, 
too  much  heart  and  too  little  head." 

Wendell  Phillips,  sincere  to  the  core,  refusing  to  misstate  his 
real  views  even  by  the  coffin's  side  and  under  the  pressure  of  uni 
versal  sorrow,  said  in  '65:  "No  matter  now  that  unable  to  lead 
and  form  the  nation,  he  was  content  to  be  its  mouthpiece  and 
representative." 

Had  Mr.  Lincoln  "too  little  head?"  Was  he  "unable  to  lead 
and  form?"  What  does  the  record  show? 

Take,  for  a  moment,  the  great  debate  with  Douglas,  which  real 
ly  began  in  1854  and  lasted  until  1860.  What  shall  we  expect 
of  this  debate?  Mr.  Lincoln  has  a  great  reputation  for  humor; 
he  has  been  born  and  has  grown  up  and  has  always  lived  on  the 


i86  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

border;  he  is  supposed  to  be  deficient  in  education;  his  audiences 
are  supposed  to  be  rude,  rough,  pioneer  audiences.  What  shall 
we  expect  then  of  this  debate  ?  Wit,  anecdote,  personalities,  keen 
thrusts,  excess  of  emotion  and  ornamentation,  a  tinge  of  coarse 
ness,  something  of  blare  and  breath  and  broadness;  much  to  be 
apologized  for  and  excused,  yet  all  to  be  redeemed  by  a  certain 
rugged  strength  and  underlying  sincerity — and  occasional  flashes 
of  insight  and  foresight  proving  him  a  native,  though  untrained, 
undisciplined  genius? 

Will  the  form  and  manner  be  crude  and  faulty,  the  matter 
bold,  audacious  and  free  even  to  lawlessness?  We  read  and  rub 
our  eyes  astonished.  It  is  all  so  simple,  so  lucid,  so  logical,  so 
chaste  and  unadorned,  so  tremendously  earnest,  and  oh,  so  in 
effably  fair  and  candid  and  kind!  No  laughter,  no  personalities, 
no  play  upon  the  emotions,  no  tricks  of  oratory;  nothing  but  the 
light  of  reason  and  the  steady  fire  of  moral  conviction.  He  does 
not  dazzle,  nor  drive,  nor  overwhelm,  but  he  wins,  he  melts,  he 
persuades,  he  steals  his  very  enemies  away  from  their  most  cher 
ished  beliefs.  We  read  the  speeches  of  others  and  we  say:  "What 
an  orator!  How  bold!  How  brilliant!  What  learning!  What 
logic!  What  power!''  We  read  this  long  debate  and  we  say: 
"How  was  it  possible  to  think  or  feel  otherwise  ?" 

And  as  for  lawlessness !  It  was  Mr.  Beecher,  of  Brooklyn,  who 
wanted  it  graven  on  his  tombstone  that  he  "scorned  and  spit 
upon  the  fugitive  slave  law."  Mr.  Lincoln  said:  "Every  pro 
vision  of  the  Constitution  must  be  obeyed  in  good  faith."  It  was 
Boston's  voice  that  condemned  that  Constitution  as  a  league  with 
hell ;  Mr.  Lincoln  maintained  it  was  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant. 

How  shall  we  mark  the  great  mind,  the  real  leader,  in  public 
affairs?  Must  he  not  be  the  man  who  most  fully  comprehends  ex 
isting  conditions ;  the  man  whose  aims  are  highest,  broadest,  most 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JAMES  WILLIS  GLEED  187 

far-reaching:,  and  most  steadily  maintained;  the  man  who  applies 
to  existing  conditions  those  measures  best  calculated  to  work  the 
result  desired? 

Measured  thus,  what  shall  be  said  of  Mr,  Lincoln?  In  1854  he 
understood,  better  than  any  other  man,  the  existing  conditions, 
North  and  South.  He  comprehended  the  entire  slavery  question. 
He  saw  and  pitied  the  bondage  of  the  blacks.  He  saw  and  pitied 
the  bondage  of  the  whites.  "He  who  would  be  no  slave,"  said  he, 
"must  have  no  slave."  Slavery  was  slavery  to  whites  as  well  as 
to  blacks.  The  institution  was  not  only  morally  wrong — it  was 
materially  destructive  and  wasteful.  It  ate  up,  it  wasted  the 
power  and  virtue  of  the  very  soil.  Its  steady  tendency  was  more 
land,  more  slaves — less  product.  It  must  be  extended  to  live; 
confined  to  the  old  slave  states  it  would  destroy  itself.  He  saw 
this.  He  saw,  too,  the  bondage  and  the  blindness  of  the  people 
of  the  North — their  servility,  their  cowardice,  their  moral  leth 
argy.  He  saw  a  part  cringing,  pliant,  prostrate;  a  part  ut 
terly  indifferent;  almost  all,  in  1854,  selfishly  engrossed. 

Thus  he  understood  the  conditions  of  1854.  He  understood 
something  else.  He  understood  the  Constitution;  he  revered,  he 
worshipped  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

"Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God,  with  all  thy  heart  and  with 
all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind;  and  thy  neighbor  as  thy 
self."  This  Mr.  Lincoln  confessed  as  the  substance  of  his  religion, 
and  this  is  the  very  pith  and  core  and  essence  of  his  political  faith 
and  teaching.  It  was  his  religion,  his  morals,  his  politics  and 
his  statesmanship.  "Thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  translated  into 
government,  meant  to  him,  "All  men  are  created  free  and  equal." 

He  believed  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  He  believed 
that  the  sufferings,  the  life-and-death  struggle  of  the  Revolu 
tionary  fathers,  lifted  them  for  the  time  being  to  new  heights  of 


i88  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

spiritual  vision;  and  that  in  the  end  they  conquered  not  only  the 
armies  of  King  George,  but  they  conquered  themselves  and  Old 
World  prejudices  and  inherited  evils  and  errors.  The  Declaration 
was  the  source  of  all  his  political  sentiments;  he  frequently  said 
so.  It  is  the  text  of  all  his  political  teaching  and  the  motive  of 
all  his  political  measures.  It  runs  like  a  strand  of  gold  through 
the  whole  fabric  of  his  life.  It  is  the  very  background  and 
atmosphere  of  the  picture — the  theme  and  melody  of  the  whole 
majestic  composition — "All  men  are  created  equal — all  men  are 
created  equal." 

He  believed  in  equality.  In  that  attitude  of  mind  under  which 
society  says  to  each  new  soul  as  it  appears,  not:  "What  have  you?" 
— not,  "What  bring  you?"  "Whence  come  you?" — race,  caste, 
class,  color? — but  simply,  "What  are  you — what  can  you  do?" 

Lincoln  believed  in  equality.  It  was  not  a  "self-evident  lie," 
it  was  not  a  mere  glittering  generality;  it  was  a  great  political 
and  spiritual  truth;  it  was  a  wide-sweeping,  all-embracing,  life- 
giving  principle;  the  very  sun  of  the  true  social  and  political 
system. 

He  not  only  believed  in  the  Declaration  as  a  religion,  but  he 
understood  it  as  a  policy — he  saw  more  and  more  clearly,  as  time 
went  on,  the  extreme  wisdom  of  it.  He  saw  more  and  more  as 
time  went  on,  the  spread  of  intelligence  that  lay  in  it,  the  growth 
of  virtue  that  lay  in  it,  the  increase  of  wealth  that  lay  in  it,  the 
perpetual  harvest  of  patriotism,  of  manhood,  of  national  strength 
and  power,  to  spring  from  that  simply  stated  truth  if  really  under 
stood  and  faithfully  followed. 

And  how  has  history  justified  his  faith!  It  is  a  great  argu 
ment  for  this  great  doctrine  of  equality  that  it  has  made  us  rich; 
it  is  a  greater  argument  that  it  gave  us  that  splendid  army  of 
volunteers  in  '61 ;  it  is  the  greatest  argument  that  when  our  exist- 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JAMES  WILLIS  GLEED  189 

ence  as  a  nation  hung  in  the  balance,  when  the  Declaration  itself 
was  on  trial  for  its  life,  this  doctrine  of  equality  gave  to  us,  gave 
to  that  army  and  gave  to  humanity  the  life  and  services  of  Abra 
ham  Lincoln. 

Now  one  more  factor  in  the  problem.  He  appreciated  the  value 
of  the  Union.  The  Union  was  everything.  The  extreme  Abol 
itionists,  hating  slavery,  were  demanding  immediate,  universal 
emancipation;  otherwise,  disunion.  The  extreme  Southern  lead 
ers  understanding  slavery,  that  it  must  be  extended  or  die — were 
demanding  extension  or  disunion.  Mr.  Lincoln  saw  that  to  give 
up  the  Union  was  to  confess  the  failure  of  free  constitutions  be 
fore  the  world— the  inability  of  democracy  to  maintain  itself  in 
a  crisis.  It  meant  the  negro  abandoned.  It  meant  weakness, 
waste  and  perpetual  warfare — if  not  chaos — to  North  and  South. 
The  anti-slavery  cause,  the  cause  of  the  Constitution  and  of  the 
Declaration,  all  hung  on  the  preservation  of  the  Union. 

Restrict  slavery,  give  it  no  new  land  to  feed  on,  let  the  nation  as 
a  nation  stand  once  more  on  the  Declaration,  preserve  the  Union 
and  slavery  will  starve  and  suffocate.  The  spirit  of  slavery  and 
the  spirit  of  the  Declaration  "cannot  stand  together.  They  are  as 
opposite  as  God  and  Mammon;  and  whosoever  holds  to  the  one 
must  despise  the  other."  This  he  said  to  the  people  of  Illinois  in 
1854;  and  in  1858  he  tolled  forth  the  same  warning  to  the  whole 
nation. 

"A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.  I  believe  this 
government  cannot  endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free. 
I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved — I  do  not  expect  the 
house  to  fall,  but  I  do  expect  that  it  will  cease  to  be  divided." 

Thus  Mr.  Lincoln,  understanding  slavery  and  hating  it,  under 
standing  the  Declaration,  the  Constitution  and  the  Union,  and  lov 
ing  them,  framed  the  issue.  Slavery  is  wrong;  it  shall  not  be  ex- 


igo  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

tended,  but  restricted  and  left  to  destroy  itself.  The  Declaration 
is  right  and  shall  be  restored.  The  Constitution  shall  be  pre 
served  and  the  Union  forever  maintained.  This  was  the  broad 
issue.  Lincoln  made  it  in  fifty-four ;  he  made  it  broad ;  he  kept  it 
broad.  On  this  issue  thus  framed,  the  whole  battle  was  fought 
from  fifty-four  clear  down  to  Appomattox. 

Is  there  no  evidence  here  of  intellect,  of  understanding,  of  real 
leadership  ? 

The  position  taken  and  maintained  in  this  great  debate  was 
not  compromise — as  many  charged  then.  It  was  a  wide  view  of 
the  present,  a  far  view  into  the  future — as  we  understand  now. 
It  was  not  compromise  in  any  sense;  it  was  complete  comprehen 
sion,  complete  wisdom,  complete  sanity. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  always  supremely  sane. 

We  love  the  leader  of  a  forlorn  hope;  we  love  the  man  who 
will  sacrifice  all  for  a  cause ;  we  admire  the  man  who  speaks  out — 
who  utters  all  that  he  thinks  or  feels — and  even  a  little  more 
out  of  the  excess  of  courage  and  sincerity ;  the  heart  leaps  in  sym 
pathy  with  him  who  will  not  equivocate,  will  not  excuse,  will  not 
retreat  a  single  inch,  and  who  will  be  heard — and  even  with  the 
blind  old  fanatic  who,  single-handed  and  alone,  takes  up  arms 
against  a  nation. 

Such  things  awe  and  dazzle  us  like  a  storm.  But  beyond  the 
roar  and  dazzle  of  the  storm,  above  the  angry  cloud,  behind  the 
thunderbolt,  is  the  Firmament,  is  Providence,  is  Supreme  Intelli 
gence  and  Changeless  Purpose.  "God  dwelleth  in  eternity  and  has 
an  infinite  leisure  to  roll  forward  the  affairs  of  men."  And  as 
the  scales  fall  from  our  eyes,  shall  we  not  more  and  more  see  and 
feel  how  much  greater,  grander,  and  more  sublime  is  the  silent, 
suffering  intelligent  patience  and  endurance  of  Lincoln,  than  the 
holy  scorn  and  righteous,  tempestuous  wrath  of  these  others  ? 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JAMES  WILLIS  GLEED  19 1 

And  so  the  period  of  debate  came  to  an  end,  and  the  period  of 
action  arrived.  The  nation,  blind  and  tormented,  was  feeling 
about  for  its  deliverer;  and  we  cannot  believe  that  the  hand  that 
groped  in  darkness  was  left  to  chance  or  fortune;  we  must  be 
lieve  that  it  was  by  some  divine  guidance  that  it  rested  finally 
upon  Abraham  Lincoln. 

With  that  pathetic  farewell  to  his  friends  at  Springfield,  he 
journeyed  down  to  Washington.  We  know  what  he  finds  there. 
Mr.  Buchanan  willing,  as  he  said,  to  give  up  a  part  of  the  Con 
stitution,  or  even  the  whole  of  it,  if  perchance  he  might  save  the 
rest,  had  left  everything  undone  that  ought  to  have  been  done.  A 
great  rebellion  has  been  inaugurated.  Mr.  Lincoln  confronts  not 
mere  ill-controlled  mobs  risen  against  the  very  idea  of  govern 
ment,  but  seven  sovereign  states — later  eleven — fully  organized, 
officered,  armed,  equipped  with  all  the  machinery  of  government 
running  smoothly  and  all  compact  and  united  for  the  protection, 
of  a  vast  material  interest.  With  the  seceding  states  have  gone 
senators,  representatives,  secretaries,  federal  judges,  foreign  min 
isters  and  consuls,  army  and  navy  commanders,  inferior  officers, 
heads  of  departments  and  clerks  without  number — carrying  over 
to  the  enemy  all  the  resources  of  knowledge,  skill,  experience,  and 
leadership — depriving  the  federal  government  of  its  very  memory 
and  leaving  every  department  confused,  unnerved  and  paralyzed. 
Hidden  disloyalty,  more  deadly  than  open  desertions,  lurks  in 
every  branch  of  the  civil  service.  No  man  knows  whom  to  trust. 
The  treasury  is  empty.  Arms,  arsenals,  ships,  navy  yards,  fortifi 
cations,  and  garrisons  have  been  betrayed  or  abandoned.  Foreign 
governments  are  unfriendly,  prejudiced  and  ready  to  intervene. 
The  people  of  the  North  are  torn  with  conflicting  views.  For 
them  no  obvious  material  interest  is  at  stake — their  lives  are  not 
threatened,  their  property  not  endangered ;  and  on  the  question  of 


192  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

right  and  wrong  public  opinion  is  for  the  moment  divided,  con 
fused,  without  form  and  void.  Darkness  is  on  the  face  of  the 
deep  and  even  when  the  light  dawns  and  the  dry  land  of  righteous 
ness,  the  granite  peaks  and  fertile  plains  of  loyalty  appear,  there 
also  appear  here  and  there  throughout  the  North  the  bogs  and 
swamps  and  rotten  morasses  of  sordid  self-interest,  secret  sym 
pathy,  and  silent  treachery! 

To  bring  order  out  of  such  chaos,  to  put  down  such  a  rebellion, 
is  the  task  confronting  the  new  Executive.  And  it  is  not  enough 
to  restore  order  and  put  down  the  rebellion;  it  must  be  done  with- 
out'the  destruction  of  popular  institutions;  without  injury  to  free 
government ;  it  must  be  done  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  the  Union, 
when  restored,  as  nearly  as  possible  a  real  Union ;  it  must  be  done 
in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  no  wasting  wounds — no  incurable  dis 
eases  in  the  body  politic. 

And  more,  the  crisis  is  new  in  human  experience.  There  is 
no  history,  no  precedent  to  go  by.  Rebellions  have  indeed  been 
put  down,  but  not  by  such  governments  as  ours.  The  very  mate 
rial  Lincoln  has  to  work  with  is  of  a  new  sort.  Napoleon  put 
down  a  revolution,  but  the  people  had  long  been  accustomed  to 
despotic  rule.  There  was  civil  war  in  Cromwell's  time,  but  the 
people  were  wonted  to  one-man  government.  But  here  is  a  people, 
free,  peaceful,  unused  to  arms,  jealous  of  power,  and  accustomed 
to  no  government  at  all  in  the  Old  World  sense.  Thus  out  of  the 
character  of  our  people  and  the  form  of  our  government  a  hun 
dred  vast  and  perplexing  questions  arise  that  are  not  new  here 
alone,  but  new  in  the  world. 

To  such  tasks,  under  such  conditions,  comes  Abraham  Lincoln, 
of  Springfield,  Illinois,  age  fifty-two,  attorney-at-law,  commercial 
rating  three  thousand  dollars  besides  homestead  exempt.  He  comes 
without  military  experience,  without  diplomatic  experience,  with- 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JAMES  WILLIS  GLEED  193 

out  any  experience  at  all,  we  may  almost  say,  in  the  administration 
of  large  affairs.  His  personal  acquaintance  is  small.  He  is  a 
stranger  to  his  own  party;  and  that  party  really  a  minority  party, 
is  new  and  strange  to  itself — made  up  of  discordant  elements  bound 
together  only  by  a  determination  that  the  Union  of  the  whole 
country  must  and  shall  be  preserved. 

The  tasks  are  gigantic  enough ;  the  conditions  to  the  last  degree 
perplexing;  his  experience  and  preparation  almost  nothing. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  the  just  God  in  Heaven  in  whom  he 
trusts;  and  there  is  the  American  people  whose  temper  and  power 
he  understands.  He  trusts  in  God;  he  understands  the  American 
people. 

The  American  people!  Ah,  there  was  the  arsenal!  There  was 
the  courage,  there  was  the  conscience,  there  was  the  overwhelm 
ing  power!  Latent,  dormant,  for  the  time  being,  yet  there  was  the 
power;  there  it  was,  spread  across  the  continent  like  a  sleeping 
sea !  There  it  lay  in  the  hearts  of  some  millions  of  common  Amer 
ican  men — and  boys — and  women !  There  it  lay  as  it  lies  now,  in 
the  stored  intelligence,  skill,  conscience,  self-control,  devotion,  and 
invincible  courage  of  the  American  people.  Intelligence,  con 
science,  strength,  heroism  were  common  then,  as  they  were  three 
years  ago — as  they  are  to-day.  What  we  had  then,  what  we  have 
now,  was,  and  is,  an  almost  limitless  store  of  human  skill  and 
capacity.  It  was  this  which  constituted  our  real  wealth  then.  It 
is  this  which  constitutes  our  wealth  and  strength  to-day.  This  Mr. 
Lincoln  understood.  He  knew  the  common  people.  He  knew  the 
farm  boys  who  could  be  turned  into  captains  and  colonels — good 
enough  in  time  of  war.  He  knew  the  canal  drivers,  the  real 
estate  agents  and  the  tanners  who  could  command  armies  and 
win  victories. 

He  said  in  that  special  message  of  his,  "So  large  an  army  as  the 


i94  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

government  has  now  on  foot  was  never  before  known  without  a 
soldier  in  it  but  who  has  taken  his  place  there  of  his  own  free 
choice. 

"But  more  than  this:  There  are  many  single  regiments  whose 
members,  one  and  another,  possess  full  practical  knowledge  of  all 
arts,  sciences,  professions  and  whatever  else  is  known  in  the 
world,  and  there  is  scarcely  one  from  which  there  could  not  be 
selected  a  president,  a  cabinet,  a  congress,  and  perhaps  a  court, 
abundantly  competent  to  administer  the  government  itself." 

It  was  this  high  and  sympathetic  estimate  of  the  talent  and 
capacity  of  the  American  people  which  enabled  Mr.  Lincoln  to 
rally  and  make  effective  the  real  strength  of  the  country. 

We  cannot  follow  him  in  detail  through  those  four  years  of 
blood  and  fire — we  cannot  tell  the  story  of  the  war — but  there  it 
is  in  that  record!  There  you  see  him  pleading  with  the  South; 
uniting  the  North;  holding  onto  the  border  states;  watching  the 
newspapers;  watching  elections;  watching  public  demonstrations; 
watching  Congress ;  controlling  the  various  executive  departments ; 
flanking  copper-heads  and  peace  Democrats;  flanking  his  own  un 
reasonable  friends;  flanking  regiments  of  office  and  commission- 
seekers,  as  well  as  regiments  of  rebels;  raising  troops;  creating  a 
navy;  studying  maps;  planning  campaigns;  making,  encouraging, 
stimulating,  rebuking  and  unmaking  generals ;  protecting  the  pub 
lic  credit;  pondering  foreign  relations;  solving  great  constitutional 
problems ;  encouraging  and  comforting  his  soldiers  and  his  people ; 
issuing  a  steady  stream  of  messages,  proclamations,  decisions  and 
various  state  papers — all  calm,  matured,  prudent,  eloquent,  wise; 
destroying  four  million  slaves  and  putting  in  their  places  four 
million  free  men;  rebuilding  from  the  outside  loyal  state  govern 
ments;  collecting  and  spending  millions  upon  millions  of  wealth; 
holding  as  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand  the  lives  and  properties  of 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JAMES  WILLIS  GLEED  195 

more  than  half  a  continent ;  wielding  a  power  really  as  great  and 
absolute  as  any  despot  ever  had  in  history,  yet  exercising  that 
power  reluctantly,  mercifully  and  with  scrupulous  and  painful  re 
gard  to  every  constitutional  limitation  and  every  individual  right. 

There  he  stands  for  four  awful  years,  hasting  not,  resting  not, 
looking  forward  and  backward,  surveying  all,  controlling  all, 
like  Fate  or  Providence  itself.  Calmly  he  takes  each  man's  cen 
sure;  steadfastly  he  reserves  his  judgment;  nothing  too  soon; 
nothing  too  late.  The  people  must  have  time  to  think;  the  battle 
is  theirs.  Emancipation  cannot  come  at  once;  its  necessity  must 
be  seen;  the  border  states  must,  if  possible,  be  held.  McClellan 
must  be  kept  awhile;  till  the  people  and  the  army  can  see  him 
as  he  is.  Negro  regiments  will  not  do  at  first,  but  negro  regi 
ments  come  as  Northern  prejudice  melts.  On  this  general  and 
that,  on  this  question  and  on  that,  he  bides  his  time.  The  present 
is  not  all;  there  is  the  future.  The  army  is  not  all;  there  are  the 
people.  In  the  midst  of  a  war,  the  most  gigantic  of  modern  times, 
every  move  and  measure  must  in  sixty-four,  in  accordance  with 
the  constitution,  be  submitted  to  the  people;  the  people  must  be 
held  as  well  as  fields  of  battle — for  Democratic  measures  will 
never  save  a  nation. 

And  so  in  the  fulness  of  time  all  is  submitted  to  the  people  and 
by  the  people  approved;  and  the  war  goes  on  and  the  great  task 
is  finally  performed.  The  clear,  simple,  definite  issue  is  abol 
ished  ;  the  Declaration  restored,  the  Constitution  intact,  the  Union 
preserved,  and  established  on  a  firmer  foundation.  Is  there  not 
some  evidence  here  of  intellect  and  leadership  ? 

We  know  from  many  speeches  delivered  on  that  journey  from 
Springfield  to  Washington,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  himself  had  Ray 
mond's  doubts  about  his  head  and  Phillips's  doubts  about  his  fit 
ness  to  lead.  Let  us  hope  that  in  those  last  bright  days  in  early 


THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 


April,  1865,  when  lie  was  down  there  at  City  Point  sending  in 
glad  tidings  hour  by  hour  to  the  stern  old  lion  of  the  war  de 
partment  —  the  victory  sure,  the  burden  lifted  —  that  he  allowed 
himself  a  little  pleasant  human  consciousness  of  the  greatness 
of  his  leadership  and  the  grandeur  of  his  achievements;  that  for 
one  fleeting  moment  he  opened  his  heart  to  "the  gentle  pride  and 
joy  of  noble  fame." 

Great  as  was  Lincoln's  intellectual  endowment,  it  was  not  his 
greatest. 

"A  power  was  his  beyond  the  touch  of  art, 
Of  armed  strength;  his  pure  and  mighty  heart." 

We  may  pass  over  the  dry,  uninteresting,  unpoetic  virtues.  He 
had  no  vices;  he  was  scrupulously  honest  and  scrupulously  truth 
ful.  These  things  make  an  admirable  man,  but  not  necessarily 
an  adorable  one.  Lincoln  was  adorable!  His  soul  seems  inde 
scribably  spacious.  The  mere  cataloguing  of  admirable  characteris 
tics  with  incidents  and  illustrations  will  not  convey  the  full  sense 
of  his  magnanimity. 

Take  his  loyalty,  his  faithfulness,  his  deep  and  abiding  rever 
ence  for  his  country's  institutions.  He  hated  slavery.  Notwith 
standing  this,  he  said:  "We  are  under  a  legal  obligation  to  catch 
and  return  the  runaway  slaves.  I  confess  I  hate  to  see  them 
hunted  down  and  carried  back  to  their  stripes  and  unrequited  toil, 
but  I  bite  my  lips  and  keep  quiet."  At  another  time  he  said, 
"If  slavery  is  not  wrong,  then  nothing  is  wrong.  I  cannot  re 
member  when  I  did  not  so  think  and  feel;  and  yet  I  have  never 
understood  that  the  presidency  conferred  upon  me  an  unrestricted 
right  to  act  officially  upon  this  judgment  and  feeling.  It  was 
in  the  oath  I  took  that  I  would  preserve,  protect  and  defend  the 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JAMES  WILLIS  GLEED  197 

Constitution  of  the  United  States.  I  could  not  take  the  office 
without  taking  the  oath,  nor  was  it  in  my  view  that  I  might  take 
an  oath  to  get  power  and  break  the  oath  in  using  the  power." 

Thus  in  every  emergency  we  find  him  slow  and  reluctant  in 
the  assumption  and  exercise  of  unusual  or  extraordinary  powers 
and  swift  and  eager  in  laying  them  down.  To  him,  the  law,  the 
Constitution,  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  are  sacred  and  holy. 

He  was  very  anxious  about  the  election  in  1864.  Doubtless  he 
had  some  wish  for  personal  approval  and  vindication,  but  we 
cannot  see  this  personal  motive  in  him  very  strong.  We  know  he 
was  weary;  we  know  he  was  heavy-laden;  we  see  him  as  pic 
tured  by  Carpenter,  gazing  out  toward  the  Virginia  horizon  and 
repeating  to  himself: 

"How  sleep  the  brave  who  sunk  to  rest 
By  all  their  country's  wishes  blest," 

and  he  goes  on:  "How  willingly  would  I  change  places  with  the 
humblest  private  who  sleeps  to-night  on  the  banks  of  the  Poto 
mac!"  This  was  his  deep  mood;  the  end  was  drawing  nigh  for 
him;  he  had  passed  through  the  fiery  furnace;  the  desire  for  earth 
ly  reward  could  not  have  been  pulling  very  hard  at  his  heart 
strings  then;  but  he  believed  that  the  fate  of  the  blacks,  the  fate 
of  the  nation,  the  fate  of  humanity,  hung  upon  that  election;  and 
he  was  extremely  anxious  for  Republican  victory.  And  yet,  de 
siring  it  so  much,  wielding  a  power  so  vast,  observe  how  fair,  how 
just,  how  scrupulous  he  is ! 

Consider  his  unselfishness.  See  how  devoted  he  is  to  his  cause 
and  how  careless  of  his  own  personal  success — how  inconsiderate 
always  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  In  '54  he  gave  way  to  Trumbull  to 
make  sure  of  a  vote  in  the  Senate  against  the  extension  of  slavery. 


I98  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

In  558  he  deliberately  risked  defeat  by  Douglas  in  order  to  make 
sure  of  national  Republican  success  in  '60.  In  the  Douglas  can 
vass  he  says:  "I  claim  no  extraordinary  exemption  from  personal 
ambition;  that  I  like  preferment  as  well  as  the  average  man  may 
be  admitted;  but  I  protest  that  I  have  not  entered  this  hard  con 
test  solely  or  even  chiefly  for  a  mere  personal  motive." 

We  cannot  think  of  Lincoln  as  in  the  ordinary  sense  ambitious. 
Public  affairs  do  not  present  themselves  to  him  as  an  arena,  a  race 
course,  for  Abraham  Lincoln;  but  as  a  field  or  a  vineyard  to  be 
made  fruitful  for  the  common  good. 

When  he  comes  to  the  presidential  chair,  how  free  he  is  of  all 
consciousness  of  Lincoln,  how  unspotted  by  pride  of  any  sort,  how 
extremely  careful  of  the  feelings  and  prejudices  and  honor  of 
other  men,  how  careless  of  his  own.  The  first  inaugural  is  so  pa 
thetic  in  its  appeal  to  the  seceding  states  that  it  has  been  crit 
icised  as  unmanly.  To  the  border  states  he  said :  "I  do  not  argue. 
I  beseech  that  you  make  arguments  for  yourselves." 

All  there  is  of  Abraham  Lincoln — his  pride  and  dignity  and 
honor,  so-called,  and  reputation — every  feeling  and  emotion  of  just 
and  proper  resentment — everything  but  principle — he  is  ever  will 
ing  to  sacrifice  to  attain  the  great  end. 

Greater  than  all  this  was  his  justice,  his  fairness  toward  the 
South,  his  sympathy  with  the  Southern  people,  his  magnanimity 
toward  even  the  leaders  of  the  Rebellion. 

In  the  matter  of  slavery  the  South  was  guilty,  but  the  North 
was  not  innocent.  The  South  kept  slaves,  but  the  North  used  the 
sugar  and  cotton  and  so  shared  in  the  profit.  "God  gives  to  both 
North  and  South,"  he  said,  "this  terrible  war  as  the  woe  due  to 
those  by  whom  the  offense  cometh." 

He  did  not  slur  over  or  ignore  the  guilt  of  secession,  but  if  you 
will  observe  him  throughout  the  four  years  of  his  service,  with 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JAMES  WILLIS  GLEED  199 

the  press  misrepresenting  him;  radical  anti-slavery  leaders  stab 
bing  him;  the  public  at  times  misunderstanding  him;  the  gov 
ernors  and  generals  complaining  of  him;  his  enemies  jeering,  his 
friends  faltering,  doubting  and  scolding ;  with  armies  meeting  dis 
aster  after  disaster;  with  the  Union  he  loved  shattered  into  frag 
ments;  with  the  slavery  he  hated  securing  perhaps  a  still  firmer 
foothold;  with  the  cause  of  popular  institutions  trembling  in  the 
balance;  with  the  shrieks  of  the  wounded,  the  groans  of  the  dying, 
the  wail  of  the  widowed  and  fatherless  ringing  in  his  ears;  torn, 
wounded,  crushed  in  every  way;  suffering  as  only  One  suffered — 
there  yet  is  not  a  note  of  scorn,  not  even  an  epithet  of  hate,  not 
a  word  of  bitterness  in  all  that  matchless  record ! 

He  had  the  gentlest,  tenderest  heart  that  ever  beat.  He  could 
be  firm.  General  Grant  wired  in  August,  1864,  that  he  was 
unwilling  to  break  his  hold  where  he  then  was.  To  which  the 
President  replied,  "Neither  am  I  willing.  Hold  on  with  a  bull 
dog  grip  and  chew  and  choke  as  much  as  possible."  This  is  an 
order  stern  and  strong  enough  to  please  the  most  resolute,  and 
yet  we  know  he  had  the  gentlest,  tenderest  heart  that  ever  beat. 
It  was  always  so. 

Riding  across  the  prairies  of  Illinois  with  his  fellow  lawyers 
on  the  circuit,  he  discovered  one  day  some  new-fledged  birds, 
blown  too  early  out  of  the  nest,  in  great  distress.  He  stopped,  dis 
mounted,  gathered  the  little  frightened  creatures  in  his  great 
hand  and  hunted  till  he  found  the  nest  and  put  them  back.  Walk 
ing  down  a  street  of  Springfield  on  one  occasion  after  his  return 
from  Congress,  he  found  a  little  girl  weeping.  She  was  to  go  on  a 
journey,  her  trunk  was  packed,  the  train  was  almost  due,  but  the 
baggageman  was  missing.  It  was  all  arranged  in  a  moment, 
and  a  huge  ex-Congressman,  with  a  trunk  on  his  shoulder  and  a 
little  girl  by  the  hand,  reached  the  station  just  in  time. 


THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 


William  Scott,  a  lad  from  Vermont,  stood  guard  one  night  in 
place  of  a  sick  friend.  The  next  night  he  was  detailed  on  his  own 
account.  He  was  caught  asleep,  tried,  found  guilty,  and  sen 
tenced  to  be  shot  by  his  own  comrades.  And  thereupon,  the  great 
gentle-hearted  President  of  the  United  States,  command er-in-chief 
of  the  army  and  navy,  throwing  aside  all  his  overwhelming  cares 
and  duties,  went  in  person  to  Chain  Ridge  and  hunted  up  William 
Scott,  and  investigated  the  circumstances,  and  issued  such  orders 
that  William  Scott  died  a  martyred  hero  fighting  for  his  coun 
try,  and  not  a  condemned  and  disgraced  traitor. 

Hundreds  of  such  instances  are  known.  He  is  always  saying, 
"It  will  do  the  boy  no  good  to  shoot  him."  Everywhere  you  find 
yearning  and  pathetic  appeals  for  opportunity  to  pardon.  He 
never  seeks  excuse  for  severity — but  always  excuse  for  clemency. 
He  is  always  trying  to  evade  what  he  calls  "this  butchering  busi 
ness."  His  tenderness  of  heart  is  by  no  means  confined  to  ques 
tions  of  life  and  death.  He  appeals  to  have  a  boy's  pay  restored. 
"Loss  of  pay  falls  so  hard  upon  poor  families.  He  wants  no  stain 
or  shadow  upon  any  soldier's  record  for  immaterial  causes. 
Nothing  more  impresses  you  in  his  letters  than  the  effort  he  makes 
to  wound  no  man's  feelings  unnecessarily.  When  he  says  it 
pains  him  not  to  make  the  appointment  asked  for,  you  know  it 
does.  His  sympathy  is  not  assumed — it  is  not  diplomatic;  it  is 
not  "a  glove  of  velvet  on  a  hand  of  steel";  it  is  deep,  sincere,  in 
exhaustible.  This  is  not  a  hand  of  steel  at  all,  but  a  warm,  kind, 
human,  ungloved  hand  of  flesh  and  blood. 

With  so  much  gentleness,  tenderness  and  sympathy,  no  wonder 
he  is  described  as — 

"That  spirit  fit  for  sorrow,  as  the  sea 
For  storms  to  beat  on." 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JAMES  WILLIS  GLEED  201 

And  how  the  storms  beat  and  what  suffering  is  his!  His  proc 
lamations  plead  and  pray.  His  military  dispatches  sob.  "How  is 
it  now,  how  is  it  now?"  he  asks.  How  pathetically  thankful  he 
is  for  every  bit  of  good  news.  "A  thousand  thanks  for  the  relief 
your  dispatches  give  me."  He  suffers,  but  he  does  not  flinch, 
he  does  not  stop  his  ears;  he  will,  he  must,  know  all,  feel  for  all, 
care  for  all.  Yet  each  added  month  of  torture  finds  him  gentler, 
kinder,  tenderer.  He  loves  most  who  suffers  most.  Nothing  in 
all  that  record  to  incite  any  man  to  hate;  not  a  page  to  harden 
any  man's  heart ;  nothing  that  does  not  seem  to  cleanse  and  melt. 
"Die  when  I  may,"  he  said  a  little  before  the  end,  "I  want  it  said 
of  me  by  those  who  knew  me  best,  that  I  always  plucked  a  thistle 
and  planted  a  flower  wherever  I  thought  a  flower  would  grow." 
And  so  through  all  this  rude  business  of  battle  he  planted  flowers 
to  the  end. 

His  icligion  was  to  do  justice,  love  mercy,  and  walk  humbly 
with  his  God.  How  deep  through  all  his  fiery  trials  was  his 
trust,  how  simple  and  sincere  his  faith,  how  complete  his  sub 
mission.  "And  thus  having  chosen  our  course,"  he  said  in  the 
beginning,  without  guile  and  with  pure  purpose,  "let  us  renew 
our  trust  in  God  and  go  forward  without  fear  and  with  manly 
hearts."  And  toward  the  end,  "The  purposes  of  the  Almighty 
are  perfect  and  must  prevail.  We  hoped  for  a  happy  termina 
tion  of  this  terrible  war  long  before  this ;  but  God  knows  best  and 
has  ruled  otherwise.  We  shall  yet  acknowledge  His  wisdom." 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  a  self-made  man,  nor  a  luck-made  man,  but 
a  God-made  man.  God  needed  him  and  God  made  him.  God 
guided  and  sustained  him.  "And  he  was  not,  for  God  took  him." 
When  the  great  sad  eyes  were  closed,  Stanton  said,  "And  now  he 
belongs  to  the  ages."  A  million  soldiers  sobbed,  "My  Captain,  0 


202  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

my  Captain !"  A  nation  bowed  its  head  in  grief  and  hearts  were 
washed  with  tears. 

Thank  God  for  Abraham  Lincoln.  However  lightly  the  words 
may  sometimes  pass  our  lips,  let  us  speak  them  now  and  always 
of  this  man,  sincerely,  solemnly,  reverently;  as  so  often  dying 
soldiers  and  bereaved  women  and  little  children  spoke  them. 
Thank  God  for  Abraham  Lincoln — for  the  Lincoln  who  died  and 
whose  ashes  rest  in  Springfield — for  the  Lincoln  who  lives  in  the 
hearts  of  the  American  people — in  their  widened  sympathies  and 
uplifted  ideals.  Thank  God  for  the  work  he  did,  is  doing  and  is 
to  do. 

Thank  God  for  Abraham  Lincoln! 


THE  SEVENTEENTH 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1903 


Address  of 
HON.  FRANK  S.  BLACK 


FRANK  SWETT  BLACK,  LL.D. 

Ex- Governor  Black  was  born  in  Limington,  Me.,  in 
1853,  and  graduated  at  Dartmouth,  in  1875.  For  sev 
eral  years  he  was  employed  in  editorial  and  literary 
work.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1879.  From 
1895-7  he  served  as  a  member  of  Congress  and  from 
1897-99  as  Governor  of  the  State  of  New  York. 


ADDRESS  OF 

EX-GOVERNOR    FRANK    S.    BLACK 


Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  there  are  subjects  upon 
which  nothing  new  can  be  said,  but  which  still  arouse  the 
fervor  awakened  at  their  first  enunciation.  If  the  song  was 
true  when  it  started  on  its  journey  it  will  be  sung  as  long 
as  human  hearts  vibrate  and  human  tongues  retain  the 
power  of  speech;  it  will  be  lisped  by  those  tottering  on  toward 
the  end  and  echoed  by  those  whose  hearts  are  filled  with  the 
promise  and  the  glow  of  youth.  If  the  product  was  genuine  when 
it  passed  from  the  Creator's  hand,  it  will  neither  be  dimmed  by 
age  nor  cheapened  by  familiarity;  for  honor  is  not  decreased  by 
contact,  and  truth  is  never  out  of  tune.  If  none  of  the  old  stories 
are  ever  to  be  retold,  many  a  noble  inspiration  must  be  lost  and 
many  a  tender  chord  must  remain  untouched. 

This  is  the  age,  I  know,  when  the  search  is  at  its  height  for  the 
new  and  marvelous,  and  in  this  eagerness  the  primeval  forests 
are  swept  away,  the  bowels  of  the  earth  are  punctured,  and  even 
on  the  remotest  sea  the  observant  eye  detects  the  flutter  of  a  sail. 
The  watchword  is  energy,  the  goal  is  success,  but  in  the  fever  of 
modern  enterprise  a  moment's  rest  can  do  no  harm.  We  must  not 
only  acquire,  we  must  retain.  We  must  not  only  learn,  we  must 
remember.  The  newest  is  not  always  the  best.  The  date  or  lustre 
of  the  coin  does  not  determine  its  metal.  The  substance  may  be 
plain  and  unobtrusive  and  still  be  gold.  Whoever  chooses  without 


206  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

a  proper  test  may  die  both  a  pauper  and  a  fool.  The  paintings  of 
recent  times  have  evoked  the  praise  of  critics,  and  yet  thousands 
still  pay  their  homage  to  an  older  genius.  Modern  literature  is 
ablaze  with  beauty  and  with  power,  and  yet  millions  are  still 
going  to  one  old  and  thumbworn  text  for  their  final  consolation. 

Remembering  the  force  of  these  examples,  it  will  be  profitable 
sometimes  to  step  one  side  for  the  serious  contemplation  of  rugged, 
lasting  qualities,  in  whatever  age  or  garb  they  have  appeared. 
The  hero  of  an  hour  will  pass  as  quickly  as  he  came.  The  flash 
light  will  dazzle  and  blind,  but  when  the  eyes  are  rubbed  the 
impression  has  passed  away,  but  the  landscape  that  comes  slowly 
into  view  with  the  rising  sun,  growing  more  resplendent  and  dis 
tinct  with  his  ascending  power,  and  fading  gently  from  the  vision 
at  the  approach  of  night,  will  remain  in  the  mind  forever  to  il 
luminate,  to  strengthen  and  to  cheer.  And  men  are  like  impres 
sions.  There  are  more  examples  of  the  flashlight  kind  than  there 
are  fireflies  on  a  summer's  night,  but  there  is  no  nobler  representa 
tive  of  the  enduring  and  immortal  than  he  in  whose  name  this 
event  is  celebrated.  Whoever  imparts  a  new  view  of  his  char 
acter  must  tell  it  to  the  newborn,  to  whom  all  things  are  new, 
for  to  the  intelligent  and  mature  his  name  and  virtues  have  been 
long  familiar.  His  was  the  power  that  commanded  admiration 
and  the  humanity  that  invited  love;  mild  but  inflexible,  just  but 
merciful,  great  but  simple,  he  possessed  a  head  that  commanded 
men  and  a  heart  that  attracted  babes.  His  conscience  was  strong 
enough  to  bear  continual  use.  It  was  not  alone  for  public  occa 
sions  nor  great  emergencies.  It  was  never  a  capital,  but  always 
a  chart.  It  was  never  his  servant,  to  be  dismissed  at  will,  but 
his  companion,  to  be  always  at  his  side.  It  was  with  him,  but 
never  behind  him,  for  he  knew  that  a  pursuing  conscience  is  an 
accuser,  and  not  a  guide,  and  brings  remorse  instead  of  comfort. 


ADDRESS  OF  EX-GOVERNOR  FRANK  S.  BLACK  207 

His  greatness  did  not  depend  upon  his  title,  for  greatness  was  Ms 
when  the  title  was  bestowed.  He  leaned  upon  no  fiction  of  aris 
tocracy,  and  kissed  no  hand  to  obtain  his  rank,  but  the  stamp  of 
nobility  and  power  which  he  wore  was  conferred  upon  him  in  that 
log  hut  in  Kentucky  that  day  in  1809  when  the  eyes  that  first 
beheld  that  sad  and  homely  face  were  the  eyes  of  Nancy  Hanks — 
and  it  was  conferred  by  a  power  which,  unlike  earthly  potentates, 
never  confers  a  title  without  a  character  that  will  adorn  it. 
When  we  understand  the  tremendous  advantages  of  a  humble 
birth,  when  we  realize  that  the  privations  of  youth  are  the  pillars 
of  strength  to  maturer  years,  then  we  shall  cease  to  wonder  that 
out  of  such  obscure  surroundings  as  watched  the  coming  of  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  should  spring  the  colossal  and  supreme  figure  of 
modern  history. 

Groves  are  better  than  temples,  fields  are  better  than  gorgeous 
carpetings,  rail  fences  are  better  than  lines  of  kneeling  slaves, 
and  the  winds  are  better  than  music  if  you  are  raising  heroes 
and  founding  governments. 

Those  who  understand  these  things  and  have  felt  the  heart 
of  nature  beat  will  not  wonder  that  this  man  could  stand  the 
shock  and  fury  of  war,  and  yet  maintain  that  calm  serenity  which 
enabled  him  to  hear  above  the  roar  of  the  storm  that  enveloped 
him  the  low,  smothered  cry  that  demanded  the  freedom  of  a  race. 

If  you  look  for  qualities  that  dazzle  and  bewilder  you  must 
seek  them  elsewhere  than  in  the  character  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
It  was  not  by  show  or  glitter,  or  by  sound,  that  the  great  mo 
ments  of  history  were  marked  and  the  great  deeds  of  mankind 
were  wrought.  The  color  counts  for  nothing.  It  is  the  fibre 
alone  that  lasts.  The  precept  will  be  forgotten  unless  the  deed 
is  remembered.  The  wildest  strains  of  martial  music  will  pass 
away  on  the  wind,,  while  the  grim  and  deadly  courage  of  the 


208  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

soldier,  moving  and  acting  without  a  word,  will  mark  the  spot 
where  pilgrims  of  every  race  will  linger  and  worship  forever. 

No  character  in  the  world  more  clearly  saw  the  worth  of  sub 
stance  and  the  mockery  of  show,  and  no  career  ever  set  in  such 
everlasting  light  the  doctrine  that  although  vanity  and  pretence 
may  flourish  for  a  day,  there  can  be  no  lasting  triumph  not  found 
ed  on  the  truth. 

The  life  of  Lincoln  moved  upon  that  high,  consistent  plane 
which  the  surroundings  of  his  youth  inspired.  Poverty  is  a  hard 
but  oftentimes  a  loving  nurse.  If  Fortune  denies  the  luxury  of 
wealth,  she  makes  generous  compensation  in  that  greater  love 
which  they  alone  can  ever  know  who  have  faced  privations  to 
gether.  The  child  may  shiver  in  the  fury  of  the  blast  which  no 
maternal  tenderness  can  shield  him  from,  but  he  may  feel  a  help 
less  tear  drop  upon  his  cheek  which  will  keep  him  warm  till  the 
snows  of  time  have  covered  his  hair.  It  is  not  wealth  that  counts 
in  the  making  of  the  world,  but  character.  And  character  is 
best  formed  amid  those  surroundings  where  every  waking  hour 
is  filled  with  struggle,  where  no  flag  of  truce  is  ever  sent,  and 
only  darkness  stays  the  conflict.  Give  me  the  hut  that  is  small 
enough,  the  poverty  that  is  deep  enough,  the  love  that  is  great 
enough,  and  I  will  raise  from  them  the  best  there  is  in  human 
character. 

This  lad,  uncouth  and  poor,  without  aid  or  accidental  circum 
stance,  rising  as  steadily  as  the  sun,  marked  a  path  across  the  sky 
so  luminous  and  clear  that  there  is  not  one  to  mate  it  to  be  dis 
covered  in  the  heavens,  and  throughout  its  whole  majestic  length 
there  is  no  spot  or  blemish  in  it. 

That  love  of  justice  and  fair  play,  and  that  respect  for  order 
and  the  law,  which  must  underlie  every  nation  that  would  long 
endure,  were  deeply  embedded  in  his  nature.  These,  I  know,  are 


ADDRESS  OF  EX-GOVERNOR  FRANK  S.  BLACK  209 

qualities  destitute  of  show  and  whose  names  are  never  set  to  music, 
but  unless  there  is  in  the  people's  heart  a  deep  sense  of  their  ever 
lasting  value,  that  people  will  neither  command  respect  in  times 
of  their  prosperity  nor  sympathy  in  the  hour  of  their  decay.  These 
are  the  qualities  that  stand  the  test  when  hurricanes  sweep  by. 
These  are  the  joints  of  oak  that  ride  the  storm,  and  when  the 
clouds  have  melted  and  the  waves  are  still,  move  on  serenely  in 
their  course.  Times  will  come  when  nothing  but  the  best  can  save 
us.  Without  warning  and  without  cause,  out  of  a  clear  and 
smiling  sky  may  descend  the  bolt  that  will  scatter  the  weaker 
qualities  to  the  winds.  We  have  seen  that  bolt  descend.  There 
is  danger  at  such  a  time.  The  hurricane  will  pass  like  the  rush 
ing  of  the  sea.  Then  is  the  time  to  determine  whether  govern 
ments  can  stand  amid  such  perilous  surroundings.  The  American 
character  has  been  often  proved  superior  to  any  test.  No  danger 
can  be  so  great  and  no  calamity  so  sudden  as  to  throw  it  off  its 
guard.  This  great  strength  in  times  of  trial  and  this  self-re 
straint  in  times  of  wild  excitement  have  been  attained  by  years 
of  training,  precept  and  experience.  Justice  has  been  seen  so 
often  to  emerge  triumphant  from  obstacles  which  seemed  to  chain 
her  limbs  and  make  the  righteous  path  impossible,  that  there  is 
now  rooted  in  the  American  heart  the  faith  that,  no  matter  how 
dark  the  night,  there  will  somehow  break  through  at  the  appointed 
hour  a  light  which  shall  reveal  to  eager  eyes  the  upright  forms 
of  Justice  and  the  Law,  still  moving  hand  in  hand,  still  supreme 
over  chaos  and  despair,  the  image  and  the  substance  of  the  world's 
sublime  reliance. 

I  should  not  try,  if  all  the  time  were  mine,  to  present  Lincoln 
as  an  orator,  lawyer,  statesman  or  politician.  His  name  and  his 
performances  in  the  lines  which  he  pursued  have  been  cut  into  the 


2io  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

rock  of  American  history  with  the  deepest  chisel  yet  made  use  of 
on  this  continent. 

But  it  is  not  by  the  grandeur  of  his  powers  that  he  has  most 
appealed  to  me,  but  rather  by  those  softer,  homelier  traits  which 
bring  him  down  to  a  closer  and  more  affectionate  view. 

The  mountain  that  pushes  its  summit  to  the  clouds  is  never  so 
magnificent  to  the  observer  on  the  plain  below  as  when  by  some 
clear  and  kindly  light  its  smaller  outlines  are  revealed. 

And  Lincoln  was  never  more  imposing  than  when  the  milder 
attributes  of  his  nature  came  in  view.  He  was  genuine,  he  was 
affectionate,  and  after  all  is  said  and  the  end  is  reached  what  is 
there  without  these  two?  You  may  measure  the  heights  and 
sound  the  depths;  you  may  gain  the  great  rewards  of  power  and 
renown;  you  may  quiver  under  the  electric  current  of  applause — 
the  time  will  come  when  these  will  fall  from  you  like  the  rags 
that  cover  your  body.  The  robes  of  power  and  the  husks  of  pre 
tense  will  alike  be  stripped  away,  and  you  must  stand  at  the  end 
as  you  stood  at  the  beginning,  revealed.  Under  such  a  test 
Abraham  Lincoln  might  stand  erect,  for  no  man  loved  the  hum 
bler,  nobler  traits  more  earnestly  than  he.  Whatever  he  pre 
tended  to  be,  he  was;  genuine  and  sincere,  he  did  not  need  em 
bellishment.  There  is  nothing  in  the  world  which  needs  so  little 
decoration  or  which  can  so  well  afford  to  spurn  it  altogether  as 
the  absolutely  genuine.  Imitations  are  likely  to  be  exposed, 
unless  carefully  ornamented.  Too  much  embellishment  generally 
covers  a  blemish  in  the  construction.  It  therefore  happens  that 
the  first  rate  invariably  rejects  adornment  and  the  second  rate 
invariably  puts  it  on.  The  difference  between  the  two  can  be 
discovered  at  short  range,  and  safety  from  exposure  lies  only 
in  imperfect  examination.  If  the  vision  is  clear  and  the  inspec 
tion  careful,  there  is  no  chance  for  the  sham  ever  to  be  taken  for 


ADDRESS  OF  EX-GOVERNOR  FRANK  S.  BLACK  211 

the  genuine.  And  that  is  why  it  happens  that  among  all  the 
forms  of  activity  in  this  very  active  age  no  struggle  is  more  sharp 
than  that  of  the  first  rate  to  be  found  out  and  of  the  second  not 
to  be.  It  is  easier  to  conceal  what  a  thing  is  than  to  prove  it  to 
be  what  it  is  not.  The  first  requires  only  concealment,  the  second 
requires  demonstration.  Sooner  or  later  the  truth  will  appear. 
Some  time  the  decorations  will  fall  off,  and  then  the  blemish  will 
appear  all  the  greater  because  of  the  surprise  at  finding  it. 

None  have  less  to  fear  from  such  a  test  than  Abraham  Lincoln, 
and  his  strength  in  that  regard  arose,  it  seems  to  me,  from  the 
preservation  through  all  his  life  of  that  fondness  for  his  early 
home,  of  the  tender  recollections  of  his  family  and  their  strug 
gles,  which  kept  his  sympathy  always  warm  and  young.  He  was 
never  so  great  but  that  the  ties  of  his  youth  still  bound  him.  He 
was  never  so  far  away  but  that  he  could  still  hear  the  note  of  the 
evening  bird  in  the  groves  of  his  nativity. 

They  say  the  tides  of  the  ocean  ebb  and  flow  by  a  force  which, 
though  remote,  always  retains  its  strength.  And  so  with  this 
man,  whether  he  rose  or  fell,  whether  he  stood  in  that  giant-like 
repose  that  distinguished  him  among  his  fellow  men,  or  exer 
cised  that  unequaled  power,  which,  to  my  mind,  made  him  the 
foremost  figure  of  the  world,  yet  he  always  felt  the  tender  and  in 
visible  chord  that  chained  him  to  his  native  rock.  In  whatever 
field  he  stood  he  felt  the  benign  and  sobering  influences  of  his 
early  recollections.  They  were  the  rock  to  which  he  clung  in 
storms,  the  anchor  which  kept  his  head  to  the  wind,  the  balm 
which  sustained  him  in  defeat  and  ennobled  him  in  the  hour  of 
triumph. 

I  shall  not  say  he  had  not  his  faults,  for  is  there  any  hope  that 
man  will  pass  through  this  vale  of  tears  without  them  ?  Is  there 
any  danger  that  his  fellow-men  will  fail  to  detect  and  proclaim 


THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 


them?  He  was  not  small  in  anything;  he  was  carved  in  deep 
lines  like  all  heroic  figures,  for  dangerous  altitudes  and  great 
purposes.  And  as  we  move  away  from  him,  and  years  and  events 
pass  between  us,  his  form  will  still  be  visible  and  distinct,  for 
such  characters,  built  upon  courage  and  faith,  and  that  loyalty 
which  is  the  seed  of  both,  are  not  the  playthings,  but  the  mas 
ters  of  time. 

How  long  the  names  of  men  will  last  no  human  foresight  can 
discover,  but  I  believe  that  even  against  the  havoc  and  confusion 
in  which  so  many  names  go  down,  the  fame  of  Lincoln  will  stand 
as  immovable  and  as  long  as  the  pyramids  against  the  rustle  of 
the  Egyptian  winds. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1904 


Address  of 
HAMILTON  W.  MABIE,  LL.D. 


HAMILTON  WRIGHT  MABIE,  A.M.,  LL.D. 

Mr.  Mabie  was  born  in  Cold  Spring,  N.  Y.,  in  1846. 
He  graduated  from  Williams  College  and  Columbia  Uni 
versity.  He  has  been  for  several  years  associate  editor 
of  "The  Outlook";  and  is  the  author  of  numerous  vol 
umes  of  essays,  of  which  the  best  known  are  "My  Study 
Fire,"  1890  and  1894;  "Essays  in  Literary  Interpreta 
tion,"  1892;  "Books  and  Culture,"  1898;  "William 
Shakspere — Poet,  Dramatist  and  Man,"  1900;  "Works 
and  Days,"  1902;  "The  Great  Word,"  1905. 


ADDRESS  OF 

HAMILTON  W.   MABIE,  LL.D. 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen — Among  the  fairy  stories  of 
achievement  that  have  been  told,  or  better  still,  that  have  been 
lived  on  this  continent,  none  certainly  is  more  inspiring-  than  that 
which  is  told  of  the  man  whose  memory  we  recall  to-night.  And 
I  can  think  of  nothing  for  the  moment  more  profitable  than  to 
trace  the  stages  by  which  this  man  fitted  himself  for  the  great 
work  which  he  so  magnificently  performed.  It  has  been  the 
theory  in  this  country — we  are  fast  learning  better — that  heroes 
are  born,  not  made.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  hero  must  not  only 
be  born,  but  made.  In  our  emphasis  upon  individual  initiative, 
upon  the  native  force  of  the  man,  upon  the  power  of  character, 
we  have  sometimes  undervalued  the  power  and  the  necessity  of 
education.  We  are  in  the  condition,  I  think,  of  the  man  who  was 
asked  if  he  played  the  violin,  and  replied :  "I  don't  know ;  I  never 
have  tried."  This  attitude  was  illustrated  by  the  small  boy  in 
the  country  town,  the  hope  and  pride  of  his  family,  who  was  sent 
to  the  office  of  the  village  lawyer  to  study  law,  and  at  the  end  of 
the  first  day  when  his  father  said  to  him:  "Well,  Jim,  what  do 
you  think  of  the  law?"  "I  don't  think  much  of  it,"  he  replied; 
"'tain't  what  they  say  it  is.  I  am  sorry  I  learned  it." 

Every  natural  force,  every  native  talent,  which  is  to  reach  its 
end,  its  highest  development,  must  be  trained,  and  there  never 
yet  was  a  great  force  well  directed  to  a  great  end  which  was 


2i6  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

not  intelligently  directed,  and  never  a  great  man  climbed  to  a 
great  height  who  did  not  plan  his  ascent,  never  a  great  achieve 
ment  made  that  was  not  made  as  the  result  of  a  long  preparation. 
The  victories  of  life  are  not  to  be  explained  on  the  ground  where 
they  are  won.  The  victories  of  life,  like  victories  of  war,  are  won 
years  in  advance  of  the  day  when  the  battle  is  waged.  The  vic 
tory  in  Port  Arthur  a  day  or  two  ago  was  not  won  suddenly,  be 
cause  a  group  of  audacious  and  brave  men  dashed  without  intelli 
gence  or  forethought  or  premeditation  into  that  great  harbor. 
It  has  been  in  the  way  of  being  won  every  day  for  the  last  ten 
years.  The  battle  of  Manila  was  not  won  in  the  harbor  of 
Manila;  it  was  won  years  before  at  Annapolis,  and  it  was  won 
again  in  the  preparation  at  Hong  Kong.  Never  a  great  deed 
done  that  is  not  done  because  a  man  has  made  himself  ready  to  do 
the  deed.  No  man  ever  yet  rose  obscure,  summoned  by  any  sud 
den  call  in  any  great  assembly,  and  sat  down  famous  because  the 
hour  inspired  him.  No  man,  as  you  know,  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
from  long  and  suffering  experience,  ever  has  anything  in  him 
when  he  is  on  his  feet  that  he  did  not  have  in  him  when  he  sat 
in  his  chair.  But  when,  as  sometimes  happens,  a  man  is  suddenly 
called  out  by  some  sudden  emergency  and  says  the  word  that 
goes  ringing  home  to  the  very  heart  of  the  Nation,  you  will 
find  that  that  speech  has  been  in  preparation  perhaps  all  the 
earlier  years  of  his  life,  just  as  Webster's  superb  description  of 
British  rule  following  the  sun's  came  to  him  years  before  its  de 
livery  on  the  citadel  of  Quebec  and  awaited  the  hour  and  the  place 
when  it  could  be  brought  from  the  silence  in  which  it  was  waiting 
all  those  years.  No  man  ever  does  anything  great  by  accident. 
Men  do  great  things  because  they  have  the  capacity  to  do  them 
and  because  they  have  trained  that  capacity.  They  make  great 


ADDRESS  OF  HAMILTON  W.  MABIE,  LL.D.  217 

achievements  because  there  is  in  them  the  force  of  heroism  and 
because  also  they  have  prepared  themselves  to  snatch  the  prize 
when  the  opportunity  arises. 

Abraham  Lincoln  is  often  numbered  among  the  uneducated,  and 
his  career  is  pointed  out  among  those  careers  which  are  supposed 
to  stimulate  the  man  who  relies  wholly  on  natural  capacity,  na 
tive  pluck  and  ambition.  All  these  qualities  Abraham  Lincoln 
had,  but  I  venture  to  say  that  no  man  in  Abraham  Lincoln's  time 
was  better  educated  than  he,  and  perhaps  no  man  was  so  well 
educated  as  he  to  do  the  work  which  God  appointed  him  to  do. 

He  was  born  of  heroic  stock,  and  he  educated  himself  to  be  the 
hero  that  he  became.  There  is  no  accident  in  that  long  career, 
no  chance  in  that  magnificent  ascent  from  the  old  frontier  to 
the  martyr's  place  in  Washington  and  to  the  larger  place  in  the 
Pantheon  of  the  world's  heroes.  Every  step  of  that  ascent  was 
made  with  patient  feet  and  intelligent  purpose,  and  with  fore 
cast  and  grasp  on  the  things  that  were  to  be  done  and  the  prepa 
ration  that  was  to  be  made  for  the  doing  of  them.  I  believe  that 
Abraham  Lincoln's  education  can  be  traced  just  as  definitely  as 
the  education  of  William  E.  Gladstone,  as  thoroughly  trained  a 
public  man  as  our  time,  or  perhaps  any  time,  has  known.  Do  not 
make  the  mistake,  however,  that  we  are  so  much  in  the  habit 
of  making,  of  identifying  education  entirely  with  academic  or 
formal  processes.  Fortunate  is  the  man  who  has  the  aid  of  the 
best  instrumentalities  and  influences  in  his  training;  but  a  man 
does  not  need  to  go  to  a  university  in  order  to  become  educated, 
and  there  are  thousands  of  men  who  do  go  to  universities  with 
out  becoming  educated.  Education  may  be  gotten  along  the  solid 
highway  which  it  has  taken  the  best  thought  and  the  best  brain 
and  the  greatest  self-denial  of  men  in  all  generations  to  build,  or 
it  may  be  taken  in  every  by-path  by  which  an  inspiring  and  fore- 


2i8  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

casting  soul  makes  its  way  out  of  obscurity  into  reputation  and 
influence. 

Born  on  the  old  frontier,  under  conditions  so  crude  and  harsh 
that  it  is  almost  impossible  for  us  to  recall  them  vividly  to-day,  the 
man  whom  we  honor  to-night  had  the  smallest  possible  opportu 
nities  of  formal  education.  His  schooling  altogether,  as  he  has 
told  us,  was  by  "littles,"  and  those  littles  were  compassed  within 
a  year.  Of  the  text-book,  the  blackboard  and  the  recitation  he 
knew  little;  but  from  the  beginning  he  seems  to  have  been  pos 
sessed  with  one  of  the  greatest  passions  and  one  of  the  most  lib 
erating  that  can  take  hold  of  a  man's  soul — a  passion  for  knowl 
edge.  In  every  class  of  which  he  was  a  member  he  stood  at  the 
head,  and  by  the  testimony  of  the  boys  who  stood  with  him,  he 
easily  passed  them  all.  Every  book  he  could  lay  his  hands  on 
he  mastered.  From  the  very  beginning  his  eager  feet  seemed  to 
have  turned  to  the  fore;  that  open,  keen,  acute  mind  of  his  seems 
to  have  fastened  upon  everything  that  could  educate  him;  every 
bit  of  knowledge,  every  bit  of  spare  time.  Lincoln  compassed 
one  great  secret;  he  learned  the  secret  of  putting  detached  five 
and  ten  minutes  together,  and  sometimes  I  think  that  a  man  that 
has  learned  how  to  husband  his  minutes  and  put  the  detached  min 
utes  together,  has  gained  the  power  of  becoming  a  highly  educated 
man.  Lincoln  had  a  few  books.  You  know  it  has  been  said  that 
only  three  books  are  necessary  to  make  a  library — the  Bible, 
Shakespeare  and  Blackstone's  Commentaries.  All  these  books  Lin 
coln  had ;  every  one  of  those  books  Lincoln  knew  intimately.  But 
Lincoln  had  other  books  as  well.  He  had,  to  begin  with,  that 
great  literature  in  sixty-six  volumes  with  which  many  of  us  are 
now  so  unfamiliar,  that  we  call  the  Bible;  a  library  which  in 
cludes  almost  every  literary  form,  which  touches  the  loftiest 
heights  of  human  aspiration  and  sounds  the  depths  of  human  ex- 


ADDRESS  OF  HAMILTON  W.  MABIE,  LL.D.  219 

perience  and  conveys  truth  to  us  in  the  noblest  eloquence,  both  of 
prose  and  of  verse.  This  library  was  sufficient  in  itself  for  a 
man  who  could  read  it  as  Lincoln  could,  without  the  aid  of  com 
mentaries  and  with  the  flash  of  the  imagination,  the  power  of 
going  to  the  place  where  a  book  lives,  which  is  worth  all  other 
kinds  of  power  in  dealing  with  the  book.  Such  a  man  could  be 
lifted  out  of  provincialism,  not  only  into  the  great  movement  of 
the  world,  but  into  the  companionship  of  some  of  the  loftiest  of 
souls  that  have  ever  lived,  by  this  single  book.  And  then  he  had 
that  mine  of  knowledge  of  life  and  of  character,  -ffisop's  Fables, 
at  his  fingers'  ends,  so  that  in  all  his  talk,  and  later  in  public 
life,  these  fables  served  the  happiest  uses  of  illustration;  and  he 
had  that  masterpiece  of  clear  presentation,  Eobinson  Crusoe.  He 
was  intimately  familiar  with  that  well  of  English  undefiled  which 
I  think  more  than  any  other  influence  colored  and  shaped  his  style 
— Bunyan's  "Pilgrim's  Progress." 

We  who  read  not  only  three  or  four  newspapers  in  the  morning 
but  a  half  a  dozen  different  editions  during  the  day,  who  live  not 
only  in  our  own  time  but  in  the  minutes  of  that  time,  who 
rarely  have  a  chance  to  read  a  book,  what  do  we  know  in  this 
busy  age  of  the  education  that  a  man  can  get  out  of  four  great 
books  which  deal  not  with  the  passing  moments  but  with  the 
centuries,  and  for  that  matter,  with  the  eternities?  This  was 
the  education  that  Abraham  Lincoln  had. 

He  borrowed  that  old-fashioned  book  which  is  responsible  for 
a  great  deal  of  misinformation,  Weems'  Life  of  Washington.  And 
when,  in  1861,  he  spoke  in  the  Senate  at  Trenton,  he  said  that 
so  thoroughly  had  he  absorbed  that  book,  that  he  could  see  Wash 
ington  crossing  the  Delaware  and  could  recall  all  the  details  of 
the  brilliant  march  on  Trenton  and  the  brilliant  march  on  Prince 
ton;  those  demonstrations  of  the  patient  generalship  of  Washing- 


220  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

ton  which  first  caught  the  attention  of  Europe  and  made  him  an 
authority  in  the  eyes  of  military  experts.  Lincoln  borrowed  that 
book  of  a  neighbor  and  took  it  home.  After  he  had  read  it  he 
put  it  between  the  logs  of  the  log  cabin  and  in  the  night  it  rained, 
and  the  water,  penetrating  the  mud,  soiled  the  book  and  discol 
ored  it.  When  he  saw  it  in  the  morning,  he  was  in  great  trepida 
tion.  He  went  to  the  man  who  owned  it  and  told  him  the  story, 
feeling  that  nothing  he  could  do  could  compensate  for  the  injury 
to  that  priceless  volume.  And  this  neighbor  said:  "Well,  Abe, 
seeing  it's  you  I  won't  be  hard  on  you;  you  give  me  three  days' 
corn  shucking  and  you  may  have  the  book."  And  Lincoln  took 
the  book  and  after  he  had  read  it  he  said  to  the  same  neighbor: 
"I  do  not  always  intend  to  be  logging  and  flat-boating  and  shuck 
ing  corn ;  I  am  going  to  study  for  a  profession." 

Later  he  came  upon  Shakespeare  and  Burns,  whom  he  learned 
afterwards  to  love,  and  whom  he  knew  so  intimately  that  he  be 
came  an  acute  critic  of  both  writers.  Now  the  man  who  knows 
his  Shakespeare  knows  pretty  much  all  that  is  to  be  known  of 
life;  and  if  he  can  put  the  Bible  back  of  it,  he  has  a  very  com 
plete  education. 

All  the  accounts  tell  us  that  Lincoln  was  always  at  work  with 
his  books  when  he  was  not  at  work  with  his  plough  or  some  other 
instrument.  Whenever  there  was  five  minutes  of  time  Lincoln 
was  using  that  time  for  study.  At  the  end  of  the  day  he  came 
home,  cut  off  a  bit  of  corn  bread,  and,  as  one  of  his  companions 
tells  us,  drew  up  a  chair,  cocked  his  legs  up  higher  than  his  head, 
took  out  his  book  and  read  until  the  light  faded ;  and  then  he  read 
by  what  artificial  light  he  could  find.  So  that  in  season  and  out 
of  season  this  boy's  passion  led  him  from  book  to  book,  until  within 
the  range  of  fifty  miles  there  was  not  a  volume  which  he  had 
not  read. 


ADDRESS  OF  HAMILTON  W.  MABIE,  LL.D. 


Well,  gentlemen,  this  would  have  made  him  what  Bacon  calls 
a  full  man,  but  it  would  not  have  made  him  the  man  of  expres 
sion  which  he  later  became.  He  not  only  had  the  passion  for 
knowledge,  but  he  had  the  passion  for  expression,  and  there  was 
not  a  flat  surface  or  smooth  surface  of  any  kind  within  his  reach 
that  did  not  bear  witness  to  his  endeavor  to  train  himself  in  the 
use  of  language.  The  flat  sides  of  logs,  the  wooden  ash  shovel, 
the  sides  of  shingles,  scraps  of  paper,  anything  on  which  a  man 
could  make  a  mark;  on  all  these  things  Lincoln  put  his  hiero 
glyphics,  and  these  hieroglyphics  were  to  spell  out  his  fortune, 
his  influence  and  his  power  in  the  future. 

Years  afterwards,  when  he  was  making  those  marvelous  speeches 
in  this  part  of  the  country  which  began  in  Cooper  Union  in  this 
city,  a  professor  of  English  in  one  of  our  universities  went  to 
hear  him,  attracted  by  his  attitude  on  public  questions,  and  was 
astonished  at  his  command  of  English,  the  purity,  lucidity  and 
persuasiveness  of  his  style.  He  heard  him  three  times  in  succes 
sion  and  then  called  at  his  hotel  and  sent  his  card  up,  and  when 
Mr.  Lincoln  came  into  the  room  he  said  to  him:  "Mr.  Lincoln,  I 
have  come  here  to  ask  you  a  single  question :  'Where  did  you  get 
your  style  ?' "  Mr.  Lincoln  was  astonished  to  know  he  had  such 
a  thing  as  style,  but  the  question  being  pressed  home  to  him,  he 
thought  a  minute  and  said:  "When  I  was  a  boy  I  began,  and  I 
kept  up  for  many  years  afterward,  the  practice  of  taking  note  of 
every  word  spoken  during  the  day  or  read  during  the  day  which 
I  did  not  understand,  and  after  I  went  to  bed  at  night  I  thought 
of  it  in  connection  with  the  other  words  until  I  saw  its  meaning, 
and  then  I  translated  it  into  some  simpler  word  which  I  knew." 

Now,  gentlemen,  if  you  knew  the  "Pilgrim's  Progress"  by  heart 
and  you  made  it  a  practice  every  night  to  translate  everything 
you  had  heard  during  the  day  into  language  of  the  quality  of  the 


THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 


Pilgrim's  Progress,  there  is  no  English  education  I  venture  to 
say  in  any  university  which  would  so  thoroughly  equip  you  to  a 
command  of  language  and  the  power  of  persuasion.  And  that 
was  the  way  that  Abraham  Lincoln  learned  to  use  the  kind  of 
English  that  he  had  at  his  fingers'  ends. 

That  was  a  talking  age — an  age  electric  with  the  stir  of 
great  questions.  Men  never  met  anywhere  in  Lincoln's  neighbor 
hood  and  time  that  they  did  not  instantly  fall  into  discussion. 
Books  were  few,  newspapers  much  fewer  in  that  time  than  this. 
Whenever  men  met  they  began  to  talk.  In  every  little  gathering 
at  the  crossroads,  in  every  country  tavern  and  country  store  and 
school-house  the  endless  debate  went  on.  Lincoln  had  the  best 
practice  which  a  man  who  was  going  to  do  his  work  could  pos 
sibly  have  had  in  these  endless  discussions,  in  these  countless 
school-rooms  in  the  Central  West  of  that  day;  and  it  was  noted 
long  before  he  had  become  a  mature  man  that  wherever  that  gaunt 
figure  was  seen  and  that  voice  was  uttering  its  speech,  men  were 
glad  to  listen,  just  as  they  used  to  gather  around  the  ragged 
gown  and  the  worn-out  shoes  of  Sam  Johnson  at  Oxford,  because 
this  ragged  undergraduate  had  something  to  say  in  a  kind  of 
English  that  everybody  could  understand. 

Lincoln  had  insatiable  curiosity  and  he  had  rare  opportunities; 
he  had  this  book  education,  persistently  and  intelligently  carried 
on;  and  he  learned  his  language  because  he  saw  the  value  of  it 
and  discovered  the  individual  method;  and  he  had  the  practice  in 
speech  of  the  time  and  the  country  in  which  he  lived.  All  these 
specifically  trained  him  for  expression. 

But  where  did  the  man's  larger  education  come  from — his  grasp 
of  great  questions,  his  ability  to  discern  fundamental  principles, 
his  insight  into  the  life  of  his  time?  Ah,  gentlemen,  that  is  the 
education  he  got  in  the  University  of  America.  It  is  here  that 


ADDRESS  OF  HAMILTON  W.  MABIE,  LL.D.  223 

we  come  face  to  face  with  the  fundamental  influences,  and  I  be 
lieve  the  very  noblest  characteristic  of  the  democratic  life.  There 
are  many  points  at  which  it  is  a  serious  question  whether  a  de 
mocracy  is  the  best  form  of  government.  If  it  be  true,  as  a  great 
German  publicist  has  said,  that  administration  is  two-thirds  of 
liberty,  then  certainly  we  have  a  great  deal  to  learn  before  we 
have  developed  the  highest  uses  of  liberty  and  mastered  all  its  re 
sources.  So  far  as  protection  to  the  individual  is  concerned,  so 
far  as  guardianship  of  privacy  is  concerned,  so  far  as  comfort 
is  concerned,  so  far  as  ministration  to  the  sense  of  beauty  is  con 
cerned,  we  have  a  great  deal  to  learn  from  our  friends  across  the 
sea,  and  it  will  be  a  blessed  thing  if  we  learn  it  in  a  century. 

And  it  is  a  serious  question,  too,  whether  the  democratic  form 
of  government  is  not  the  most  expensive  form  of  government  in 
the  world.  So  far  as  we  have  failed  to  realize  the  ideals  of  those 
who  cared  most  for  it,  we  have  failed  because  we  have  not  been 
willing  to  pay  the  price  which  our  government  exacts.  It  is 
true,  as  Benjamin  Kidd  said,  that  the  fundamental  defect  in  Amer 
ica  is  the  lack  of  civic  self-sacrifice,  and  our  institutions  will  never 
be  what  they  can  be  until  our  American  people  are  willing  to 
pay  a  great  deal  more  in  time  and  strength  and  thought  for  their 
public  life  than  they  have  ever  yet  been  willing  to  pay.  But 
one  great  redeeming  quality  at  the  heart  of  it  all,  the  influence 
that  issues  out  of  our  life  itself — of  which  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
the  product — is  the  American  spirit.  Out  of  the  very  heart  of  our 
life  came  the  influences  which  shaped  Lincoln.  There  is  nothing 
so  searching  as  the  atmosphere  of  the  country  in  which  a  man  is 
born.  To  be  born  in  England  is  to  be  born  to  an  inheritance  of 
fifteen  hundred  years  of  free  civic  life,  to  belief  in  patriotism  and 
honesty  and  honor  and  to  respect  for  capacity  and  contempt  for 
weakness.  To  be  born  in  America  is  to  be  born  to  the  conception 


224  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

that  a  man  is  a  man,  no  matter  what  his  condition  is ;  that  every 
man  carries  his  fortune  in  his  own  hands,  that  all  things  are  open, 
and  that  in  a  democratic  society  every  man  goes  to  the  place 
where  he  belongs. 

Now  that  spirit  playing  on  Abraham  Lincoln  made  him  the 
man  that  he  was,  opened  every  door  to  him,  stimulated  his  am 
bition  and  drove  him  step  by  step  up  that  long  ascending  way.  No 
man  has  ever  yet  shown  a  more  remarkable  power  of  being  trained 
by  conditions  and  events  than  he — a  poor,  uneducated,  untrained 
boy  on  the  old  frontier,  then  a  provincial  lawyer,  then  a  State 
legislator,  then  a  representative  of  his  State  in  Congress,  elected 
by  a  section  of  his  country,  he  became  at  last  the  President  of 
the  United  States.  And  it  is  his  superb  and  unique  honor  that  he 
outgrew  every  trace  of  sectionalism  as  he  went  along.  And  al 
though  he  was  called  upon  to  rule  over  a  divided  household  he 
thought  of  it  always,  and  he  dealt  with  it  always,  as  if  it  was 
one  and  indivisible. 

I  do  not  need  to  tell  you  that  a  man  who  has  this  capacity  for 
growth;  who  left  the  frontier  behind  him,  who  outgrew  Sangamon 
County,  who  was  larger  than  Illinois,  who  was  greater  than  the 
North,  who  became  at  last  the  President  of  the  whole  United 
States,  even  in  disunion,  the  first  national  President,  was  not  ma 
chine-made.  A  politician  in  his  skill,  his  knowledge,  his  adroit 
ness,  he  was  a  statesman  by  instinct  and  dealt  with  fundamental 
principles;  when  he  thought  of  the  country  he  thought  not  of 
the  North,  of  the  South,  of  the  East  or  of  the  West,  but  the  United 
States  of  America. 

Several  years  ago  I  was  coming  down  from  the  Senate  Cham 
ber  in  Washington  in  company  with  two  of  the  oldest  members  of 
that  body,  veterans  in  the  public  service.  They  began  to  recall 
earlier  times  in  their  history,  and  they  recalled  that  almost  tragic 


ADDRESS  OF  HAMILTON  W.  MABIE,  LL.D.  225 

morning  when  Mr.  Lincoln  came  to  his  Capitol  rather  as  a  fugitive 
than  as  President  of  the  United  States.  They  remembered  how  he 
came  on  to  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  the  body  of 
which  they  were  both  members,  at  that  time,  and  how,  as  they 
looked  across  in  the  dull  light  of  that  late  February  or  early  March 
morning  and  saw  that  tall,  gaunt,  unkempt  figure  standing  there, 
although  they  both  knew  him  and  respected  him,  their  hearts 
sank  and  they  wondered  whether  that  ungainly  man  could  be 
equal  to  the  crisis  which  they  saw  fast  approaching.  You  know 
how  the  men  of  his  own  party  questioned  and  doubted,  you  know 
the  misgivings  of  the  people  at  large,  you  know  what  a  storm  of 
criticism  and  comment,  suggestion  and  appeal  broke  over  him; 
you  know  how  he  seemed  to  waver  sometimes  from  side  to  side, 
how  he  seemed  to  be  watching  the  current  of  public  opinion.  As 
Mrs.  Stowe  has  beautifully  said,  he  was  like  a  great  cable,  rising 
and  falling  with  every  tide,  and  yet  fast  bound  at  either  end. 
You  know  how  one  by  one  the  men  of  his  own  official  family  had 
to  learn  that  he  was  the  master  of  his  own  administration;  you 
know  how  gradually  the  faith  in  his  judgment  and  sagacity  grew 
in  his  own  party  ranks;  you  know  how  the  people  came  to  trust 
him;  how  even  his  enemies,  at  least  those  who  stood  against  him, 
at  last  began  to  discern  his  nobility  and  his  generosity;  and  then 
at  the  very  climax  of  his  career,  when  the  clouds  parted  at  last 
and  the  sun  shone  after  that  dreadful  tempest,  and  the  birds  sang 
once  more,  that  last  thunderbolt  struck  him  and  there  began  that 
marvelous  transformation  which  changed  the  uncouth  boy  of  the 
old  frontier  into  the  hero  of  the  Nation  and  one  of  the  great  heroes 
of  modern  times. 

First,  untutored  vigor,  then  tempered  strength,  then  a  great 
human  character  with  infinite  depths  of  patience  and  infinite 
power  of  endurance.  First,  as  Thorwaldsen  has  said,  the  clay 


226  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

model,  then  the  plaster  cast,  then  the  finished  marble.  And  when 
at  the  end  of  that  struggle  the  oldest  of  American  universities 
gathered  her  children  about  her  to  commemorate  her  own  heroic 
dead,  and  called  upon  one  of  the  greatest  American  poets  to  sing 
their  requiem,  Lowell  made  the  "Commemoration  Ode" — one  of  the 
nearest  approaches  to  great  poetry  yet  achieved  on  this  continent 
— a  pedestal  on  which  to  place  the  statue  of  one  whom  he  called 
"The  First  American." 


THE  NINETEENTH 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  13,  1905 


Address  of 
HON.  JONATHAN  P.  DOLLIVER 


JONATHAN  PRENTISS  DOLLIVER,  LL.D. 

Senator  Dolliver  was  born  in  1858,  near  Kingwood, 
Preston  Co.,  W.  Va.,  and  graduated  from  West  Virginia 
University,  in  1875.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1878 
and  established  a  practice  in  Iowa.  From  1889-1901  he 
was  Member  of  Congress  from  the  Tenth  Iowa  Dis 
trict,  and  from  1900  U.  S.  Senator  from  Iowa. 


ADDRESS  OF 

HON.  JONATHAN    P.  DOLLIVER 


Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  It  has  been  a  good  many 
years,  fourteen,  I  think,  since  I  had  the  opportunity  of  joining 
this  club,  and  one  would  think  that  the  lapse  of  that  time  would 
be  enough  to  get  a  man  out  of  the  habit  of  making  after-dinner 
speeches  unless  he  had  become,  like  my  friend,  Secretary  Boot, 
and  others  here,  hopelessly  addicted  to  it. 

The  first  thing  that  strikes  me  is  that  a  good  many  people  have 
joined  this  club  since  I  did,  and  the  next  thing,  that  you  have  had 
the  wisdom  to  invite  your  wives  here  to  see  that  you  get  home 
all  right. 

It  is  a  circumstance  of  unusual  interest  that  the  President  is 
here;  not  counting  it  beneath  our  highest  official  dignity  to 
mingle  freely  with  his  political  associates,  in  the  party  organiza 
tion  of  which  he  is  a  member,  and  to  add  the  inspiration  of  his 
eloquent  counsel  to  their  celebration  of  the  birthday  of  the  first 
great  Republican  leader.  For,  while  the  memory  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  is  too  great  to  be  claimed  by  a  political  party,  too  great 
to  belong  to  a  single  nation,  too  great  to  be  absorbed  in  the  re 
nown  of  one  century,  yet  there  is  a  sense  so  sacred  that  it  barely 
admits  of  the  suggestion  in  which  his  name  is  our  peculiar  pos 
session,  the  most  precious  thing  in  our  Republican  inheritance. 
The  ministry  of  his  life  was  to  all  parties;  to  all  peoples;  to  all 
ages.  But  to  the  children  of  the  old  Republican  homestead  has 


230  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

been  confided,  under  the  bonds  of  an  especial  obligation,  the  care 
of  his  fame  and  the  keeping  of  his  faith. 

Within  less  than  half  a  century  this  man,  once  despised,  once 
derided,  once  distrusted  and  maligned,  has  been  transfigured,  in 
the  light  of  universal  history,  so  that  all  men  and  all  generations 
of  men  may  see  him  and  make  out  if  possible  the  manner  of  man 
he  was.  His  life  in  this  world  was  not  long,  less  than  three  score 
years;  only  ten  of  them  visible  above  the  dead  level  of  affairs. 
Yet  into  that  brief  space  events  were  crowded,  so  stupendous  in 
their  ultimate  significance,  that  we  find  ourselves  laying  down 
the  narrative  which  records  them,  with  a  strange  feeling  coming 
over  us,  that  may  be  after  all  we  are  not  reading  about  a  man 
at  all,  but  about  some  mysterious  personality,  in  the  hands  of 
the  higher  Powers,  with  a  supernatural  commission  to  help  and 
to  bless  the  human  race.  Our  book  shelves  were  filling  up  so  fast 
with  apocryphal  literature  of  the  Civil  War  that  if  it  had  not 
been  for  the  loving  labors  of  the  two  men,  John  Hay  and  John 
G.  Nicolay,  who  knew  him  best,  and  have  gathered  up  the  frag 
ments  of  his  life,  so  that  nothing  has  been  lost,  we  would  have 
had  by  this  time  only  a  blurred  and  doubtful  picture  of  his  re 
tiring  and  unpretentious  character. 

Some  have  told  us  that  he  was  a  great  lawyer.  He  was  noth 
ing  of  the  sort.  It  is  true  that  he  grasped  without  apparent 
effort  the  principles  of  the  common  law,  and  his  faculties  were 
so  normal  and  complete  that  he  did  not  need  a  commentary,  nor  a 
copy  of  the  Madison  papers,  thumb-marked  by  the  doubts  and  fears 
of  three  generations,  to  make  him  sure  that  the  men  who  made 
the  Constitution  were  building  for  eternity.  But  he  practiced 
law  without  a  library,  and  all  who  were  acquainted  with  him 
testify  that  in  a  law  suit  he  was  of  no  account,  unless  he  knew  the 
right  was  on  his  side.  It  was  against  his  intellectual  and  his 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JONATHAN  P.  DOLLIVER  231 

moral  grain  to  accept  Lord  Bacon's  cynical  suggestion  that  there 
is  no  way  of  knowing  whether  a  cause  be  good  or  bad  till  the  jury 
had  brought  in  its  verdict. 

The  familiar  judicial  circuit  around  Springfield,  where  he 
cracked  his  jokes  about  the  office  stove  in  country  taverns,  where 
he  spoke  to  everybody  by  his  first  name  and  everybody  liked  to 
hear  him  talk,  did  much  for  him  in  every  way;  but  the  noble 
profession,  so  ably  represented  about  this  board,  will  bear  me  wit 
ness  that  an  attorney  who  gives  his  advice  away  for  nothing,  who 
does  not  have  the  foresight  to  ask  for  a  retainer,  and  usually 
lacks  the  business  talent  to  collect  his  fee,  whatever  other  merits 
he  may  have,  is  not  cut  out  by  nature  for  a  lawyer.  I  have  talked 
with  many  of  the  oldtime  members  of  the  bar  at  which  he  used 
to  practice  law,  thinking  all  the  while  of  other  things,  and  from 
what  they  say  I  cannot  help  believing  that  the  notion  even  then 
was  slowly  forming  in  his  mind,  that  he  held  a  brief,  with  Power 
of  Attorney  from  on  High,  for  the  unnumbered  millions  of  his 
fellow  men  and  was  only  loitering  around  the  county  seats  of 
Illinois  until  the  case  came  on  for  trial. 

Some  tell  us  that  he  was  a  great  orator.  If  that  is  so,  the 
standards  of  the  schools,  ancient  and  modern,  must  be  thrown 
away.  Perhaps  they  ought  to  be;  and  when  they  are  this  curious 
circuit-rider  of  the  law;  who  refreshed  his  companions  with 
wit  and  argument  from  the  well  of  English  undefiled;  this  cham 
pion  of  civil  liberty,  confuting  Douglas  with  a  remorseless  logic, 
cast  in  phrases  rich  with  the  homely  wisdom  of  proverbial  lit 
erature;  this  advocate  of  the  people,  head  and  shoulders  above  his 
brethren,  stating  their  case  before  the  bar  of  history,  in  sentences 
so  simple  that  a  child  can  follow  them;  surely  such  a  one  cannot 
be  left  out  of  the  company  of  the  masters  who  have  added  some 
thing  to  the  conquests  of  the  mother  tongue.  He  was  dissatisfied 


232  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

with  his  modest  address  at  Gettysburg,  read  awkwardly  from  poor 
ly  written  manuscript;  and  thought  Edward  Everett's  oration 
was  the  best  he  had  ever  heard,  but  Mr.  Everett  himself  discerned 
without  a  minute  for  reflection,  that  the  little  scrap  of  crumpled 
paper  which  the  President  held  in  his  unsteady  hand  that  day 
would  be  treasured  from  generation  to  generation  after  his  own 
laborious  deliverance  had  been  forgotten.  The  old  school  of  ora 
tory  and  the  new  met  on  that  rude  platform  among  the  graves 
under  the  trees,  and  congratulated  each  other.  They  have  not 
met  very  often  since,  for  both  of  them  have  been  pushed  aside 
to  make  room  for  the  essayists,  the  declaimers,  the  statisticians, 
and  other  enterprising  pedlars  of  intellectual  wares,  who  have  de 
scended  like  a  swarm  on  all  human  deliberations. 

He  has  been  described  as  a  great  statesman.  If  by  that  you 
mean  that  he  was  trained  in  the  administrative  mechanism  of  the 
government,  or  that  he  was  wiser  than  his  day  in  the  creed  of 
the  party  in  whose  fellowship  he  passed  his  earlier  years,  there  is 
little  evidence  of  that  at  all;  the  most  that  can  be  said  is  that 
he  clung  to  the  fortunes  of  the  old  Whig  leadership  through  evil, 
as  well  as  good  report,  and  that  he  stumped  the  county  and  after 
wards  the  State;  but  the  speeches  which  he  made,  neither  he  nor 
anybody  else  regarded  it  important  to  preserve.  His  platform 
from  the  first  was  brief  and  to  the  point.  "I  am  in  favor  of  a 
national  bank.  I  am  in  favor  of  the  internal  improvement  sys 
tem,  and  a  high  protective  tariff."  But  while  for  half  his  life 
he  followed  Henry  Clay,  like  a  lover  more  than  a  disciple,  yet 
when  that  popular  hero  died  and  Lincoln  was  selected  to  make 
a  memorial  address  in  the  old  State  House,  he  dismissed  the  prin 
ciples  of  his  party  creed  without  a  word,  and  reserved  his  tribute 
for  the  love  of  liberty  and  the  devotion  of  the  Union  which  shone 
even  to  the  end,  in  that  superb  career. 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JONATHAN  P.  DOLLIVER  233 

To  speak  of  Lincoln  as  a  statesman,  whatever  adjectives  you 
use,  opens  no  secret  of  his  biography  and  rather  seems  to  me  to 
belittle  the  epic  grandeur  of  the  drama  in  which  he  moved.  Of 
course  he  was  a  statesman;  exactly  so,  Saul  of  Tarsus,  setting  out 
from  Damascus,  became  a  famous  traveller,  and  Christopher  Co 
lumbus,  inheriting  a  taste  for  the  sea,  became  a  mariner  of  high 
repute. 

There  are  some  who  have  given  a  study,  more  or  less  profound, 
to  the  official  records  of  the  rebellion  who  make  of  Lincoln  an 
exceptional  military  genius,  skilful  in  the  management  of  armies 
and  prepared  better  even  than  his  generals  to  give  direction  to 
their  movements.  I  doubt  this  very  much.  He  was  driven  into  the 
war  department  by  the  exigency  of  the  times,  and  if  he  towered 
above  the  ill-fitting  uniforms,  which  made  their  way,  through  one 
influence  and  another,  to  positions  of  brief  command  during  the 
first  campaigns  of  the  Civil  War,  it  is  not  very  high  praise  after 
all.  One  thing,  however,  he  must  be  given  credit  for;  he  per 
ceived  the  size  of  the  undertaking  which  he  had  in  hand,  and  he 
kept  looking  until  his  eyes  were  weary  for  the  man  who  could 
grasp  the  whole  field  and  get  out  of  the  Army  what  he  knew 
was  in  it.  It  broke  his  heart  to  see  its  efforts  scattered  and 
thrown  away  by  quarrels  among  its  officers,  endless  in  number, 
and  unintelligible  for  the  most  part  to  the  outside  world.  When 
he  passed  the  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  over  to  Gen 
eral  Hooker,  he  did  it  in  terms  of  reprimand  and  admonition, 
which  read  like  a  father's  last  warning  to  a  wayward  son.  He 
told  him  that  he  had  wronged  his  country  and  done  a  gross 
injustice  to  a  brother  officer.  Recalling  Hooker's  insubordinate 
suggestion  that  the  Army  and  the  Government  both  needed  a 
dictator,  he  reminded  him  that  "only  those  generals  who  gain 
successes  can  set  up  dictators,"  and  added,  with  a  humor  as  grim 


234  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

as  death,  "what  I  now  ask  of  you  is  military  success,  and  I  will 
risk  the  dictatorship."  If  the  General  did  not  tear  up  his  com 
mission  when  he  read  that  letter  it  was  because  he  was  brave 
enough  to  bear  the  severity  of  the  naked  truth. 

All  this  time  he  had  his  eye  upon  a  man  in  the  West,  who 
had  been  doing  an  extensive  business  down  in  Tennessee,  "a 
copious  worker  and  fighter,  but  a  very  meagre  writer,"  as  he 
afterwards  described  him  in  a  telegram  to  Burnside.  He  had 
watched  him  with  attentive  interest,  noticing  particularly  that 
his  plans  always  squared  with  the  event;  that  he  never  regretted 
to  report;  and  after  Vicksburg  fell  and  the  tide  of  invasion  had 
been  rolled  back  from  the  borders  of  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania, 
he  wrote  two  letters,  one  to  General  Meade,  calling  him  to  a  stern 
account  for  not  following  up  his  victory,  and  one  to  General 
Grant  directing  him  to  report  to  Washington  for  duty.  The 
letter  to  General  Meade,  now  resting  peacefully  in  Nicolay's  col 
lection  of  the  writings  of  Lincoln,  all  the  fires  of  its  wrath  long 
since  gone  out,  was  never  sent.  But  General  Grant  got  his.  And 
from  that  day  there  were  no  more  military  orders  from  the  White 
House,  no  exhortations  to  advance,  no  despatches  to  move  upon 
the  enemy's  works.  He  still  had  his  own  ideas  how  the  job  ought 
to  be  done,  but  he  did  not  even  ask  the  General  to  tell  him  his.  He 
left  it  all  to  him.  And  as  the  plan  of  the  great  Captain  unfolded, 
he  sent  to  his  headquarters  this  exultant  message: 

"I  begin  to  see  it.     You  will  succeed.     God  bless  you  all. 

"A.  Lincoln." 

And  so  these  two,  each  adding  something  to  the  other's  fame, 
go  down  to  history  together;  God's  blessing  falling  like  a  bene 
diction  upon  the  memory  of  both. 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JONATHAN  P.  DOLLIVER  235 

The  whole  world  now  knows  his  stature.  But  while  he  lived 
hardly  anybody  was  able  to  take  his  measure.  The  foremost 
statesman  of  his  Cabinet,  after  pestering  him  for  a  month  with 
contradictory  pieces  of  advice,  placed  before  him  a  memorandum, 
grotesque  in  its  assumption  of  superior  wisdom,  which  ended  with 
an  accommodating  proposal  to  take  the  responsibilities  of  the 
administration  off  his  hands.  After  the  battle  of  Bull  Kun  even 
so  incorruptible  a  patriot  as  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  known  in  after 
years  as  the  organizer  of  victory,  wrote  to  James  Buchanan,  then 
living  near  the  Capital  in  the  quiet  of  his  country  seat  at  Wheat- 
land,  these  words  of  mockery  and  contempt: 

"The  imbecility  of  the  administration  culminated  in  that 
catastrophe;  and  irretrievable  misfortune  and  national  disgrace 
never  to  be  forgotten  are  to  be  added  to  the  ruin  of  peaceful  pur 
suits  and  national  bankruptcy  as  the  result  of  Lincoln's  'running 
the  machine'  for  five  full  months." 

From  the  sanctum  of  the  old  Tribune,  where  for  a  generation 
Horace  Greeley  had  dominated  the  opinions  of  the  people  as  no 
American  editor  has  done  before  or  since  his  day,  came  a  confi 
dential  letter,  a  maudlin  mixture  of  enterprise  and  despair;  a 
despair  which,  after  seven  sleepless  nights,  had  given  up  the  fight ; 
an  enterprise  which  sought  for  inside  information  of  the  inevita 
ble  hour  of  the  surrender  near  at  hand.  "You  are  not  consid 
ered  a  great  man,"  said  Mr.  Greeley  for  the  President's  eye  alone. 

Who  is  this,  sitting  all  night  long  on  a  lounge  in  the  public 
oflices  of  the  White  House,  listening,  with  the  comments  of  a 
quaint  humor,  to  privates  and  ofiicers  and  scared  Congressmen  and 
citizens,  who  poured  across  the  Long  Bridge  from  the  first  bat 
tlefield  of  the  rebellion  to  tell  their  tale  of  woe  to  the  only  man 
in  Washington  who  had  sense  enough  left  to  appreciate  it,  or 
patience  enough  left  to  listen  to  it?  Is  it  the  log  cabin  student, 


236  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

learning  to  read  and  write  by  the  light  of  the  kitchen  fire  in 
the  woods  of  Indiana?  It  is  he.  Can  it  be  the  adventurous 
voyager  of  the  Missisippi,  who  gets  ideas  of  lifting  vessels  over 
riffles  while  he  worked  his  frail  craft  clear  of  obstructions  in  the 
stream;  and  ideas  broad  as  the  free  skies,  of  helping  nations 
out  of  barbarism  as  he  traced  the  divine  image  in  the  faces  of  men 
and  women  chained  together,  under  the  hammer,  in  the  slave- 
market  at  New  Orleans?  It  is  he.  Can  it  be  the  awkward  farm 
hand  of  the  Sangamon  who  covered  his  bare  feet  in  the  fresh 
dirt  which  his  plow  had  turned  up  to  keep  them  from  getting 
sunburned,  while  he  sat  down  at  the  end  of  the  furrow  to  rest 
his  team  and  to  regale  himself  with  a  few  more  pages  of  worn 
volumes  borrowed  from  the  neighbors?  It  is  he.  Can  it  be  the 
country  lawyer  who  rode  on  horseback  from  county  to  county, 
with  nothing  in  his  saddlebags  except  a  clean  shirt  and  the  code 
of  Illinois  to  try  his  cases  and  to  air  his  views  in  the  cheerful 
company  which  always  gathered  about  the  court  house?  It  is 
he.  Is  it  the  daring  debater,  blazing  out  for  a  moment  with 
the  momentous  warning  "A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot 
stand,"  then  falling  back  within  the  defenses  of  the  Constitution, 
that  the  cause  of  liberty,  hindered  already  by  the  folly  of  its 
friends,  might  not  make  itself  an  outlaw  in  the  land?  It  is  he. 
Is  it  the  weary  traveller  who  begged  the  prayers  of  anxious  neigh 
bors  as  he  set  out  for  the  last  time  from  home,  and  talked  in  lan 
guage  sad  and  mystical  of  One  who  could  go  with  him,  and  re 
main  with  them  and  be  everywhere  for  good?  It  is  he. 

They  said  he  laughed  in  a  weird  way  that  night  on  the  sofa 
in  the  public  offices  of  the  White  House,  and  they  told  funny  tales 
about  how  he  looked,  and  the  comic  papers  of  London  and  New 
York  portrayed  him  in  brutal  pictures  of  his  big  hands;  hands 
that  were  about  to  be  stretched  out  to  save  the  civilization  of  the 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JONATHAN  P.  DOLLIVER  237 

world;  and  his  overgrown  feet;  feet  that  for  four  torn  and  bleed 
ing  years  were  not  to  weary  in  the  service  of  mankind.  They 
said  that  his  clothes  did  not  fit  him;  that  he  stretched  his  long 
legs  in  ungainly  postures;  that  he  was  common  and  uncouth  in 
his  appearance.  Some  said  that  this  being  a  backwoodsman  was 
becoming  a  rather  questionable  recommendation  for  a  President 
of  the  United  States;  and  they  recalled  with  satisfaction  the  grace 
of  courtly  manners  brought  home  from  St.  James'.  Little  did 
they  dream  that  the  rude  cabin  yonder  on  the  edge  of  the  hill 
country  of  Kentucky  was  about  to  be  transformed  by  the  tender 
imagination  of  the  people  into  a  mansion  more  stately  than  the 
White  House;  more  royal  than  all  the  palaces  of  the  earth;  it 
did  not  shelter  the  childhood  of  a  king,  but  there  is  one  thing 
in  this  world  more  royal  than  a  king — it  is  a  man. 

They  said  he  jested  and  acted  unconcernedly  as  he  looked  at  peo 
ple  through  eyes  that  moved  slowly  from  one  to  another  in  the 
crowd.  They  did  not  know  him;  or  they  might  have  seen  that 
he  was  not  looking  at  the  crowd  at  all;  that  his  immortal  spirit 
was  girding  for  its  ordeal.  And  if  he  laughed,  it  may  be  that 
he  heard  cheerful  voices  from  above;  for  had  he  not  read  some 
where  that  He  that  sitteth  in  the  heavens  sometimes  looks  down 
with  laughter  and  derision  upon  the  impotent  plans  of  men  to 
turn  aside  the  everlasting  purposes  of  God? 

It  took  his  countrymen  the  full  four  years  to  find  Abraham 
Lincoln  out.  By  the  light  of  the  camp  fires  of  victorious  armies 
they  learned  to  see  the  outline  of  his  gigantic  figure,  to  assess  the 
integrity  of  his  character,  to  comprehend  the  majesty  of  his  con 
science;  and  when  at  last  they  looked  upon  his  care-worn  face 
as  the  nation  reverently  bore  his  body  to  the  grave,  through  their 
tears  they  saw  him  exalted  above  all  thrones  in  the  affection  of 
the  human  race. 


238  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

We  have  been  accustomed  to  think  of  the  Civil  War  as  an  affair 
of  armies,  for  we  come  of  a  fighting  stock  and  the  military  instinct 
in  us  needs  little  cultivation  or  none  at  all.  But  it  requires  no 
very  deep  insight  into  the  hidden  things  of  history  to  see  that 
the  real  conflict  was  not  between  armed  forces,  was  not  on  bat 
tlefields,  nor  under  the  walls  of  besieged  cities;  and  that  fact 
makes  Abraham  Lincoln  greater  than  all  his  generals,  greater 
than  all  his  admirals,  greater  than  all  the  armies  and  all  the 
navies  that  responded  to  his  proclamation.  He  stands  apart  be 
cause  he  bore  the  ark  of  the  covenant.  He  was  making  not  his 
own  fight,  not  merely  the  fight  of  his  own  country,  or  of  the  pass 
ing  generation.  The  stars  in  their  courses  had  enlisted  with  him ; 
he  had  a  treaty,  never  submitted  to  the  Senate,  which  made  him 
the  ally  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  with  infinite  reinforcements  at 
his  call.  The  battle  he  was  waging  was  not  in  the  fallen  timber 
about  the  old  church  at  Shiloh;  nor  in  the  Wilderness  of  Vir 
ginia;  he  contended  not  alone  with  an  insurrection  of  the  slave 
power;  he  was  hand  to  hand  with  a  rebellion  ancient  as  selfish 
ness  and  greed  which  in  all  centuries  has  denied  the  rights  of 
man,  made  of  human  governments  a  pestilent  succession  of 
despotisms  and  turned  the  history  of  our  race  into  a  dull  recital 
of  crimes  and  failures  and  misfortunes.  Thus  he  was  caught  up 
like  Ezekiel,  prophet  of  Israel,  and  brought  to  the  East  gate  of 
the  Lord's  house;  and  when  he  heard  it  said  unto  him,  "Son  of 
Man,  these  are  the  men  who  devise  mischief,"  he  knew  what 
the  vision  meant;  for  he  understood  better  than  any  man  who 
ever  lived  what  this  endless  struggle  of  humanity  is,  and  how  far 
the  nation  of  America  had  fallen  away  from  its  duty  and  its  op 
portunity. 

All  his  life  there  had  dwelt  in  his  recollection  a  little  sentence 
from  an  historic  document  which  had  been  carelessly  passed  along 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JONATHAN  P.  DOLLIVER  239 

from  one  Fourth  of  July  celebration  to  another,  "All  men  are 
created  equal."  To  him  the  words  sounded  like  an  answer  to  a 
question  propounded  by  the  oldest  of  the  Hebrew  sages,  "If  I 
despise  the  cause  of  my  man  servant,  or  my  maid  servant,  when 
he  contendeth  with  me,  what  shall  I  do  when  God  riseth  up  ?  Did 
not  He  that  made  me  make  him?" — a  strategic  question  that  had 
to  be  answered  aright  before  democracy  or  any  other  form  of 
civil  liberty  could  make  headway  in  the  world.  All  men  are 
created  equal.  He  knew  that  the  hand  which  wrote  that  sentence 
was  guided  by  a  wisdom  somewhat  higher  than  the  front  porch 
of  a  slave  plantation  in  Virginia;  that  first  principles  overshadow 
time  and  place;  and  that  when  men  take  their  lives  in  their  hands 
to  lay  the  foundations  of  free  nations,  they  must  speak  the  truth 
lest  the  heavens  fall.  With  a  sublime  faith,  shared  within  the 
limits  of  their  light  by  millions,  he  believed  that  sentence.  He 
had  tested  the  depth  of  it  till  his  plummet  touched  the  founda 
tion  of  the  earth.  From  his  youth  that  simple  saying  had  been 
ringing  in  his  ears,  "All  men  are  created  equal."  It  was  the 
answer  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  of  Christ,  to  all  the  dim  millen 
niums  that  were  before  Him;  yet  he  had  heard  it  ridiculed,  nar 
rowed  down  to  nothing  and  explained  away.  He  understood  the 
meaning  of  the  words  and  came  to  their  defence. 

Brushing  away  the  wretched  sophistries  of  partisan  expediency, 
he  rescued  the  handwriting  of  Thomas  Jefferson  from  obloquy  and 
contempt.  "I  think,"  he  said,  "that  the  authors  of  that  notable 
instrument  intended  to  include  all  men.  But  they  did  not  in 
tend  to  declare  all  men  equal  in  all  respects.  They  did  not  mean 
to  say  that  all  were  equal  in  color,  size,  intellect,  moral  develop 
ment,  or  social  capacity.  They  defined,  with  tolerable  distinct 
ness,  in  what  respects  they  did  consider  all  men  created  equal — 
equal,  with  certain  inalienable  rights  among  which  are  life,  lib- 


240  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

erty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  This  they  said  and  this  they 
meant.  They  did  not  mean  to  assert  the  obvious  untruth  that 
all  men  were  then  actually  enjoying  that  equality,  nor  that  they 
were  about  to  confer  it  immediately  upon  them.  In  fact  they  had 
no  power  to  confer  such  a  boon.  They  meant  simply  to  declare 
the  right,  so  that  the  enforcement  of  it  should  follow  as  fast  as 
circumstances  would  permit.  They  meant  to  set  up  a  standard 
maxim  for  free  society,  which  should  be  familiar  to  all  and  re 
vered  by  all ;  constantly  looked  to,  constantly  labored  for,  and  even 
though  never  perfectly  attained,  constantly  approximated;  there 
by  constantly  spreading  and  deepening  its  influence  and  augment 
ing  the  value  and  happiness  of  life  to  all  people,  of  all  colors, 
everywhere."  That  was  the  message  of  Abraham  Lincoln  to  the 
nations  of  America.  And  as  if  to  make  it  certain,  that  it  was 
no  mere  flourish  of  a  joint  debate,  he  turned  aside  on  his  trium 
phal  journey  to  the  Capital,  just  before  he  took  the  oath  of  office, 
to  repeat  the  sacred  precepts  of  the  Declaration  in  the  hall  at 
Philadelphia,  where  our  fathers  first  spoke  them,  and  to  add  his 
pledge  to  theirs  that  he  would  defend  them  with  his  life. 

Here  is  the  summit,  the  spiritual  height,  from  which  he  was 
able  to  forecast  the  doom  of  all  tyrannies,  the  end  of  all  slaveries, 
the  unconditional  surrender  of  all  the  strongholds  of  injustice  and 
avarice  and  oppression;  this  is  the  mountain  top  from  which  he 
sent  down  these  inspiring  words  of  good  cheer  and  hope:  "This 
essentially  is  a  people's  contest;  on  the  side  of  the  Union,  a  strug 
gle  to  maintain  in  the  world  that  form  and  substance  of  gov 
ernment,  the  leading  object  of  which  is  to  elevate  the  condition 
of  men,  to  lift  artificial  weights  from  shoulders ;  to  clear  the  path 
of  laudable  pursuit  for  all,  and  to  afford  all  an  unfettered  start 
and  a  fair  chance  in  the  race  of  life."  No  American,  North  or 
South,  regrets  that  this  war  for  the  Union  ended  as  it  did — "that 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JONATHAN  P.  DOLLIVER  241 

we  are  not  enemies,  but  friends."  Nor  can  I  help  believing  that 
the  words  which  he  has  spoken  here  to-night  have  brought  the 
President  of  the  United  States  nearer  to  our  brethren  beyond  the 
line,  once  so  real,  now  happily  so  imaginary,  which  formerly  di 
vided  and  estranged  our  people.  Thanks  be  unto  God,  we  are  one 
nation  and  even  in  our  partisan  traditions  we  share  in  the  heritage 
of  a  common  faith  in  the  institutions  founded  by  our  fathers.  As 
Democrats  we  repeat  the  words  "equal  rights  to  all  and  special 
privileges  to  none."  As  Republicans  we  answer,  "an  unfettered 
start  and  a  fair  chance  in  the  race  of  life."  The  doctrine  is  the 
same,  nor  is  the  day  as  far  off  as  some  may  think  when  the  peo 
ple,  without  regard  to  the  divisions  of  their  political  opinions, 
shall  treasure  in  thankful  hearts,  the  blunt  and  fearless  plat 
form  of  Theodore  Roosevelt,  "A  square  deal  for  every  man,  no  less, 
no  more."  The  doctrine  is  the  same,  and  if  it  is  not  true  there 
is  no  foundation  for  institutions  such  as  ours.  But  the  doctrine 
is  forever  true,  and  by  the  memory  of  Abraham  Lincoln  the  Re 
publican  party  stands  pledged  to  make  it  good,  and  to  keep  it  good 
for  all  men  and  for  all  time  to  come. 


THE  TWENTIETH 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1906 


Address  of 
GEN.  HORACE  PORTER 


ADDRESS  OF 

GENERAL  HORACE  PORTER 


Mr.  President  and  Fellow  Members  of  the  Republican  Club: 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  of  humble  birth;  he  early  had  to  struggle 
with  the  trials  of  misfortune  and  to  learn  the  first  lessons  of  life 
in  the  severe  school  of  adversity.  He  came  from  that  class  which 
he  always  alluded  to  as  the  "plain  people."  He  always  possessed 
their  confidence,  he  never  lost  his  hold  on  their  affections.  He 
believed  that  the  government  was  made  for  the  people,  and  not 
the  people  for  the  government,  and  that  true  Republicanism  was 
like  a  torch — the  more  it  is  shaken  in  the  hands  of  the  people  the 
brighter  it  burns. 

If  at  the  height  of  his  power  any  one  had  sneered  at  him  on  ac 
count  of  his  humble  origin,  he  might  well  have  replied,  like  the 
Marshal  of  France,  who  was  raised  from  the  ranks  to  a  dukedom, 
when  he  told  the  haughty  nobles  of  Vienna,  who  boasted  of  their 
long  lines  of  descent  and  refused  to  associate  with  him,  "I  am  an 
ancestor;  you  are  only  descendants. " 

Abraham  Lincoln  possessed  in  a  remarkable  degree  that  most 
uncommon  of  all  virtues,  common  sense.  With  him  there  was  no 
practising  the  arts  of  the  demagogue,  no  posing  for  effect,  no  at 
titudinizing  in  public,  no  mawkish  sentimentality.  There  was 
none  of  that  puppyism  so  often  bred  by  power.  There  was  none 


246  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  that  dogmatism  that  Dr.  Johnson  said  was  only  puppyism 
grown  to  maturity. 

While  his  mind  was  one  great  storehouse  of  facts  and  useful 
information,  he  laid  no  claim  to  any  knowledge  he  did  not  pos 
sess.  He  believed  with  Addison  that  pedantry  in  learning  is  like 
hypocrisy  in  religion,  a  form  of  knowledge  without  the  power  of  it. 

While  he  was  singularly  adroit  and  patient  in  smoothing  down 
the  ruffled  feathers  of  friends  who  did  not  understand  him,  or 
even  of  political  opponents,  he  wasted  no  time  upon  the  absolute 
recalcitrants.  He  never  attempted  to  massage  the  back  of  a 
political  porcupine.  And,  as  he  once  said  himself,  he  always  found 
it  was  a  losing  game  to  try  to  shovel  fleas  across  a  barnyard. 

I  have  often  thought  how  few  there  are  to-day  alive  who  knew 
Abraham  Lincoln  intimately,  and  had  conversed  with  him.  His 
immediate  contemporaries  have  fallen  like  the  leaves  of  autumn. 

I  shall  never  forget,  for  it  is  a  circumstance  that  is  indelibly 
engraved  upon  my  memory,  the  first  day  it  was  my  privilege  to 
look  upon  the  features  of  that  illustrious  man. 

It  was  just  forty-two  years  ago  when  General  Grant  came  from 
the  West  with  his  staff,  to  receive  the  commission  of  Lieutenant- 
General,  which  gave  him  command  of  all  the  armies  of  the  Re 
public.  He  arrived,  late  in  the  evening,  at  the  hotel,  and,  hear 
ing  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  holding  a  reception  in  the  White  House, 
he  and  his  staff  went  there  quietly.  Notwithstanding  the  years 
of  co-operation  of  those  two  men  and  their  extensive  correspond 
ence,  Mr.  Lincoln  and  General  Grant  had  never  met.  As  the  gen 
eral  entered  the  reception  room  he  was  elbowed  and  jostled  by  the 
crowd.  No  one  knew  him.  When  he  came  into  the  Blue  Room  Mr. 
Lincoln's  quick  eye  caught  sight  of  him,  recognized  him  by  the 
portraits  of  him  he  had  seen,  and,  stepping  forward,  reached  out 


ADDRESS  OF  GENERAL  HORACE  PORTER         247 

his  long,  angular  arm,  seized  the  general  by  the  hand,  drew  him 
close  up  to  him  and  said  to  Mrs.  Lincoln:  "Why,  here  is  General 
Grant.  What  a  surprise!  What  a  delight!"  And  there  the  two 
stood  conversing.  Their  figures  formed  a  striking  contrast — Gen 
eral  Grant  5  feet  8  inches  in  height,  standing  with  his  head 
somewhat  bowed,  Lincoln  towering  above  him,  6  feet  4  inches  tall. 
That  night  Mr.  Lincoln  wore  a  dress  suit  with  a  turned  down 
collar  a  couple  of  sizes  too  large,  and  a  cravat  carelessly  tied. 
There  was  something  awkward  and  angular  in  his  movements, 
but  nothing  that  bordered  upon  the  grotesque.  There  they  stood 
conversing  intimately  for  some  time.  It  was  a  strange  sight  to 
watch  the  first  meeting  of  those  two  men,  one  in  the  cabinet,  the 
other  in  the  camp,  into  whose  hands  Providence  had  seemed  to 
place  for  a  time  the  destinies  of  the  Republic.  It  was  fortunate 
for  the  country  that  they  co-operated  as  patriots,  that  they  had 
souls  too  great  for  rivalry,  hearts  too  noble  for  jealousy.  Through 
out  that  long  and  bitter  struggle  for  the  Nation's  life  they  stood 
shoulder  to  shoulder  like  the  men  in  the  Grecian  phalanx  of  old, 
locking  their  shields  together  against  a  common  foe,  and  teach 
ing  the  world  it  is  time  to  abandon  the  path  of  ambition  when  it 
becomes  so  narrow  that  two  cannot  walk  it  abreast. 

Their  acquaintance  ripened  into  a  genuine  affection,  and  Mr. 
Lincoln  three  times  came  down  to  visit  General  Grant  at  his  head 
quarters  at  City  Point  when  our  armies  were  investing  Richmond 
and  Petersburg,  and  when  he  sat  about  the  campfire  on  a  camp 
chair,  his  legs  crossed,  or,  rather,  one  of  those  long  legs  wrapped 
around  the  other,  sweeping  away  with  his  large  hand  the  smoke 
of  the  fire  as  it  blew  in  his  face,  we  listened  to  the  words  of  wis 
dom  and  eloquence  that  fell  from  his  lips,  and  to  the  inimitable 
stories  he  told  until  those  evenings  in  their  pleasure  rivalled  the 
Arabian  Nights'  Entertainments. 


248  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

When  he  visited  the  camp  just  before  the  final  movement  be 
gan — the  Appomattox  campaign — he  stepped  over  with  the  Adju 
tant-general  to  the  telegraph  operator's  tent,  to  get  the  first  sight 
of  the  dispatches  he  expected  from  Washington.  There  he  saw 
on  the  floor  three  little  kittens  crawling  about,  and  the  great 
man  sat  down  in  a  chair  and  picked  them  up  tenderly,  put  them 
in  his  lap,  stroked  their  fur  and  drew  the  skirts  of  his  coat  around 
them  to  keep  them  warm,  and  he  said  to  the  adjutant-general: 
"Here  are  three  little  motherless  waifs;  I  hope  you  will  take  good 
care  of  them."  "Oh,  yes,"  was  the  reply,  "we  will  give  them  to 
the  camp  cook,  and  he  will  take  care  of  them."  "And  will  they 
get  some  good  milk  every  day?"  "Oh,  yes,"  said  the  adjutant- 
general.  And  three  times  I  saw  the  President  go  to  that  tent 
during  his  visit  and  pick  up  those  little  kittens,  fondle  them  and 
take  out  his  handkerchief  and  wipe  their  eyes  as  they  lay  in  his 
lap  purring  their  gratitude.  It  seemed  a  strange  sight  to  us  on 
the  eve  of  a  battle,  when  every  one  was  thinking  only  of  the  sci 
ence  of  destruction,  to  see  those  little  creatures  caressed  by  the 
hand  that  by  a  stroke  of  the  pen  had  struck  the  shackles  from  four 
millions  of  bondsmen,  that  had  signed  the  commission  of  every 
officer  in  that  gallant  army,  from  the  General  in  Chief  to  the 
humblest  lieutenant.  It  was  a  very  trivial  circumstance,  but  it 
showed  more  than  greater  acts  the  childlike  simplicity  that  was 
mingled  with  the  majestic  grandeur  of  his  nature. 

He  came  down  to  camp  just  after  he  had  been  renominated  to 
the  presidency.  We  were  talking  about  how  the  Electoral  Col 
lege  was  composed,  and  he  said:  "Of  all  our  colleges,  the  Elec 
toral  College  is  the  only  one  where  they  choose  their  own  mas 
ters." 

And  then,  in  speaking  to  General  Butler  about  the  historical 
fact  that  every  place  General  Grant  had  ever  taken  had  been  held, 


ADDRESS  OF  GENERAL  HORACE  PORTER        249 

never  yielded  up,  Mr.  Lincoln  said:  "When  General  Grant  once 
gets  possessed  of  a  place  he  seems  to  hang  on  to  it  as  if  he  had 
inherited  it." 

There  was  an  officer  cleaning  his  sword  at  the  campfire.  Mr. 
Lincoln  came  up,  looked  at  it,  took  it  in  his  hand,  and  said :  "That 
is  a  formidable  weapon,  but  it  don't  look  half  as  dangerous  to  me 
as  once  did  a  Kentucky  bowie  knife.  One  night  I  passed  through 
the  outskirts  of  Louisville  when  suddenly  a  man  sprang  from  a 
dark  alley  and  drew  out  a  bowie  knife.  It  looked  three  times 
as  long  as  that  sword,  though  I  don't  suppose  it  really  was.  He 
flourished  it  in  front  of  me.  It  glistened  in  the  moonlight,  and 
for  several  minutes  he  seemed  to  try  to  see  how  near  he  could 
come  to  cutting  off  my  nose  without  quite  doing  it.  Finally  he 
said:  'Can  you  lend  me  five  dollars  on  that?'  I  never  reached 
in  my  pocket  for  money  as  quick  in  the  whole  course  of  my  life, 
and,  handing  him  a  bill,  said :  There's  ten  dollars,  neighbor.  Now 
put  up  your  scythe.' " 

He  arrived  the  next  time  a  few  days  after  the  colored  troops 
had  been  successful  in  making  an  assault,  and  remarked:  "I  am 
glad  the  black  boys  have  done  well.  I  must  go  out  and  see  them." 
He  rode  out  with  General  Grant  and  staff,  and  the  word  was 
passed  along  to  the  colored  troops  that  the  President  was  coming, 
and  then  the  cry  arose  everywhere,  "Thar's  Massa  Linkum,"  and 
"Ole  Fader  Abraham  is  a-comin',"  and  they  shouted,  cheered, 
laughed,  got  down  on  their  knees  and  prayed,  fondled  his  horse, 
and  some  rushed  off  to  tell  their  comrades  that  they  had  even  kissed 
the  hem  of  his  garment.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  very  much  affected; 
he  had  his  hat  off,  the  tears  were  in  his  eyes,  and  his  voice  was 
so  choked  with  emotion  that  he  could  scarcely  respond  to  the 
salutations.  It  was  a  memorable  sight,  to  see  the  liberated  paying 
their  homage  to  the  great  liberator.  He  remarked  on  the  way 


250  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

back  to  camp :  "When  we  were  enlisting  the  colored  troops  there 
was  great  opposition  to  it,  but  I  said  to  some  of  my  critics  one 
day,  'Well,  as  long  as  we  are  trying  to  send  every  able-bodied 
man  to  the  front  to  save  this  country,  I  guess  we  had  all  better 
be  a  little  color  blind.'  "  I  can  express  my  satisfaction  with 
what  they  have  accomplished  down  here  something  like  an  old- 
time  abolitionist  did  upon  another  occasion  in  Illinois.  He  went 
to  Chicago,  and  his  friends  took  him  to  see  Forrest  play  Othello. 
He  didn't  know  it  was  a  white  man  blacked  up  for  the  purpose, 
and  after  the  play  was  over  said:  "Well,  all  sectional  prejudice 
aside,  and  making  due  allowance  for  my  partiality  for  the  race, 
darn  me  if  I  don't  think  the  nigger  held  his  own  with  any 
on  'em." 

I  will  only  mention  one  more  of  those  stories,  for  it  greatly 
amused  us  one  night  in  camp.  I  had  in  my  hand  a  grain  of  the 
powder  manufactured  for  the  big  guns.  It  was  as  large  as  a  wal 
nut.  He  asked:  "Is  that  a  grain  of  powder?  Well,  it's  larger 
than  the  powder  we  used  to  use  down  in  Sangamon  County.  Be 
fore  the  country  newspapers  were  published  the  fellows  mer 
chandizing  there  used  to  avail  of  the  time  before  the  preacher 
arrived  at  the  weekly  prayer  meetings  to  announce  what  goods 
they  had  received  from  the  East.  A  man  got  up  one  night  and 
said:  'Brethren,  before  the  preacher  gets  here  I  want  to  say  that 
I  have  just  received  a  new  invoice  of  sporting  powder.  The 
grains  are  so  fine  you  can  scarcely  see  them  with  the  naked  eye, 
and  polished  up  so  bright  you  can  stand  up  and  comb  your  hair 
in  front  of  'em  just  as  if  it  was  a  looking  glass.'  There  was  a 
rival  powder  merchant  in  the  congregation  who  was  boiling  over 
with  rage  to  find  his  competitor  getting  so  much  cheap  advertis 
ing,  who  rose  and  said:  'Brethren,  I  hope  you  won't  believe  a 
durned  word  Brother  Smith  has  told  you  about  that  powder.  I 


ADDRESS  OF  GENERAL  HORACE  PORTER         251 

have  seen  it  myself.  Every  lump  is  as  big  as  a  lump  of  stove 
coal,  and  I  pledge  you  my  word  that  any  one  of  you  could  put 
a  barrel  of  that  powder  on  your  shoulder  and  march  squar' 
through  hell  without  any  danger  of  an  explosion.'  " 

There  are  two  names  of  presidents  that  will  always  be  in 
separably  associated  in  our  minds — Washington  and  Lincoln.  But 
from  the  manner  in  which  modern  historians  magnify  trivial  acts 
you  would  suppose  one  had  spent  his  entire  life  in  cutting  down 
trees  and  the  other  in  splitting  them  up  into  rails.  There  was  one 
marked  difference  between  them — Washington  could  not  tell  a 
story;  Lincoln  always  could. 

But  he  told  them  not  for  the  anecdote,  but  to  clinch  a  fact,  to 
point  a  moral. 

Ah,  it  was  that  humor  of  his  that  was  his  safety  valve.  It 
lightened  his  mind  and  relieved  it  for  the  time  from  the  great 
responsibilities  that  were  weighing  upon  him.  He  could  cut  the 
sting  from  the  keenest  criticism  with  his  wit,  he  could  gild  dis 
appointment  with  a  joke.  He  knew  better  than  most  men  that 
in  speech  wit  is  to  eloquence  what  in  music  melody  is  to  harmony. 

But  his  mind  was  not  always  attuned  to  mirth;  its  chords 
were  too  often  set  to  strains  of  sadness.  There  was  the  slaughter 
in  the  field,  the  depletion  of  the  treasury,  complications  which 
arose.  All  these  were  so  appalling  that  sometimes  even  the  great 
soul  of  Lincoln  seemed  ready  to  melt.  But  just  when  the  gloom 
was  blackest  he  never,  never  took  counsel  of  his  fears.  He  al 
ways  had  the  courage  of  his  convictions.  He  never  had  occasion 
to  look  to  the  past  with  regret,  nor  to  the  future  with  apprehen 
sion.  He  had  that  sublime  faith  which  is  content  to  leave  the 
efforts  to  man,  the  results  to  God. 

When  hope  seemed  fading  and  courage  failing,  when  he  was 
surrounded  on  all  sides  by  doubting  Thomases,  unbelieving  Sad- 


252  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

ducees  and  discontented  Catilines,  as  the  Danes  once  destroyed 
the  hearing  of  their  war  steeds  in  order  that  they  might  not  be 
affrighted  by  the  din  of  battle,  so  Abraham  Lincoln  turned  a  deaf 
ear  to  all  doubts  and  despondency  about  him  and  exhibited  an  un 
swerving,  an  unbounded  faith  in  the  justice  of  the  cause  and  the 
integrity  of  the  Union. 

His  was  the  faith  that  could  see  in  the  storm  cloud  a  bow  of 
promise,  that  could  hear  in  the  discords  of  the  present  the  har 
monies  of  the  future. 

Singular  man !    He  was  a  Hercules,  not  an  Adonis. 

We  learn  little  in  this  world  from  precept — much  from  ex 
ample.  Patterns  are  better  followed  than  rules. 

For  ages  after  the  battle  of  Thermopylae  every  Greek  school 
child  was  taught  to  recite  each  day  the  names  of  the  three  hundred 
heroes  who  fell  in  the  defence  of  that  Pass.  It  would  be  a  crown 
ing  act  of  patriotism  if  every  American  school  child  could  be 
taught  each  day  to  contemplate  the  exalted  character  and  utter 
the  inspiring  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Singular  man !  No  one  can  pluck  a  single  laurel  from  his  brow, 
no  one  can  lessen  the  measure  of  his  fame.  Marvellous  man! 
In  the  annals  of  all  history  we  fail  to  find  another  whose  life 
had  been  so  peaceful,  whose  nature  so  gentle,  and  yet  who  was 
called  upon  to  marshal  the  hosts  of  an  aroused  people  and  for 
four  long  years  to  conduct  a  bloody,  relentless,  fratricidal  war. 

In  the  annals  of  history  we  fail  to  find  another  whose  edu 
cation  was  that  of  the  cabinet,  not  the  camp,  and  yet  who  died  a 
more  heroic  death. 

It  has  seldom  fallen  to  the  lot  of  man  to  strike  the  shackles 
from  the  limbs  of  bondmen  and  liberate  a  race.  It  has  seldom 
fallen  to  the  lot  of  man  to  die  the  death  of  an  honored  martyr, 


ADDRESS  OF  GENERAL  HORACE  PORTER        253 

with  his  robes  of  office  still  about  him,  his  heart  at  peace  with 
his  fellowmen,  his  soul  at  peace  with  his  God,  at  the  moment  of 
the  restoration  of  his  country  to  peace  within  her  borders,  to  peace 
with  all  the  world. 

We  did  not  bury  him  in  a  Roman  Pantheon,  in  a  domed  St. 
Paul's,  or  in  an  historic  Westminster  Abbey.  We  gave  him  nobler 
sepulchre;  we  laid  him  to  rest  in  the  soil  his  efforts  had  saved. 
That  tomb  will  forever  be  the  Mecca  of  all  patriotic  American 
citizens.  Future  ages  will  pause  to  read  the  inscription  on  its 
portals,  and  the  prayers  and  praises  of  a  redeemed  and  regenerated 
people  will  rise  from  that  grave  as  incense  rises  from  holy  places, 
pointing  out  even  to  the  angels  in  heaven  where  rest  the  ashes  of 
him  who  had  reached  the  highest  pinnacle  of  earthly  glory  and 
covered  the  earth  with  his  renown. 

It  is  only  now  that  Abraham  Lincoln  has  receded  from  us  far 
enough  in  history  to  enable  us  to  see  him  in  his  true  proportions. 

A  celebrated  sculptor  in  the  fourteenth  century  in  Florence 
was  commanded  to  make  a  colossal  statue,  which  was  to  surmount 
an  historic  cathedral.  When  it  was  placed  at  the  base  of  the 
cathedral,  the  ropes  arranged  for  hoisting  it,  and  it  was  there  un 
veiled,  the  crowd  jeered  and  hooted  and  criticised  unmercifully  the 
sculptor.  It  was  all  out  of  proportion;  it  was  a  failure.  But 
soon  the  ropes  began  to  tighten,  and  as  the  statue  moved  up  into 
the  air  the  crowd  ceased  to  jeer,  and  finally,  when  it  was  placed 
upon  the  pinnacle  at  the  proper  focal  distance  as  intended  by 
the  great  sculptor,  who  created  it,  the  sneers  turned  to  plaudits, 
and  the  people  then  saw  it  in  all  the  beauty  of  its  true  propor 
tions. 

And  so  Abraham  Lincoln  has  so  far  receded  from  us  in  his 
tory  that  he  is  now  in  the  proper  focal  distance.  We  can  now 


254  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

measure  all  his  great  qualities  as  they  appear  in  their  true  beauty 
and  symmetry. 

I  am  glad  there  is  a  movement  on  foot  to  purchase  the  farm 
upon  which  he  was  born.  It  is  well  that  it  should  be  redeemed 
from  individual  ownership.  It  should  be  made  the  repository  of 
all  the  interesting  relics  connected  with  him.  It  ought  to  be  the 
seat  of  a  national  museum  and  a  national  park. 

He  is  gone  from  us  now,  crowned  with  the  sublimity  of  mar 
tyrdom.  We  have  bidden  a  last  farewell  to  him  who  was  the 
gentlest  of  all  spirits,  noblest  of  all  hearts,  liberator  of  a  race, 
savior  of  a  Republic,  martyr,  whose  sepulchre  is  human  hearts. 


THE  TWENTY-FIRST 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1907 


Address  of 
GEN.  0.  0.  HOWARD 


OLIVER  OTIS  HOWARD 

General  Howard  was  born  in  Leeds,  Me.,  1830.  He 
graduated  at  Bowdoin  College,  1850;  West  Point,  1854. 
Was  a  Lieutenant,  U.  S.  A.,  and  instructor  in  mathe 
matics  at  West  Point  on  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  In 
May,  1861,  he  was  commissioned  a  colonel  of  the  Third 
Maine  Regiment,  and  a  major-general  of  volunteers  in 
1862.  He  took  part  in  many  of  the  heaviest  engage 
ments  of  the  war.  From  1865-74,  he  was  a  commis 
sioner  of  the  Freedman's  Bureau,  took  an  important 
part  in  the  work  of  Reconstruction,  and  in  the  Indian 
wars  of  the  seventies.  In  1864  he  was  made  a  brigadier- 
general,  U.  S.  A.,  and  in  1886,  major-general,  U.  S.  A. 
He  retired  in  1894.  In  1895  he  founded  the  Lincoln 
Memorial  University  (collegiate,  normal  and  industrial 
school)  at  Cumberland  Gap,  Tenn.  He  is  also  known 
as  an  author  and  a  lecturer  of  repute.  He  has  re 
ceived  numerous  honors  for  bravery,  and  is  a  Chevalier 
of  the  Legion  of  Honor. 


ADDRESS  OF 

GENERAL  O.  O.   HOWARD 


Fellow  Republicans  of  the  Republican  Club  of  New  York,  Ladies 
and  Gentlemen :  I  have  been  seeking  for  about  a  half  an  hour  for 
a  definition  of  the  present  Republican  party.  I  asked  General 
Porter,  and  he  thinks  it  consists  principally  in  the  following  of 
Abraham  Lincoln.  I  have  asked  General  Dodge,  who  himself  is 
the  epitome  of  Republicanism,  and  he  says  it  is  the  party  that  is 
always  in  favor  of  patriotism  and  progress. 

I  was  thinking  while  I  sat  here  what  a  fate  it  is  that  a  man 
should  be  a  substitute  at  all.  I  wasn't  a  substitute  during  the 
war.  Some  years  ago  I  was  a  substitute  at  a  New  England  din 
ner  for  Mr.  Carnegie  in  this  city,  and  I  remarked  then:  How  is  it 
possible  for  a  man  who  has  so  little  to  represent  a  man  who  has 
so  much? 

And  now  I  want  to  say  to  you  that  it  is  very  unfortunate  to 
get  so  small  a  shotgun  to  represent  a  Cannon,  but  I  am  willing 
to  make  this  substitution  in  the  face  of  that  beautiful  remark 
of  Speaker  Cannon's  just  read  to  us,  which  is  the  very  essence  of 
Republicanism  in  this  country. 

I  began  with  the  Republican  party  at  its  beginning.  Of 
course,  I  was  in  the  army  then  and  have  been  now  fifty-seven 
years,  and  expect  to  remain  in  the  army  until  I  die.  But  while 
in  the  army  I  have  always  contended,  General  Dodge,  that  a  man 
has  no  right  to  forego  his  citizenship.  So  I  say  to  you  that 


258  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

I  am  very,  very  glad  to  be  welcomed  here  by  seventeen  hundred 
young  men  who  represent  the  Republicanism  of  New  York.  It  is 
a  hard  place  to  be  a  Republican  in,  New  York.  I  saw  a  lady  the 
other  day,  and  she  said :  "Up  in  Vermont  I  am  an  out-and-out  Re 
publican,  but  the  moment  I  get  to  New  York  I  am  simply  a  Tam 
many  Democrat." 

When  during  the  Civil  War  our  public  men  were  somewhat  dis 
couraged  with  reference  to  its  outcome,  more  than  at  any  other 
period,  there  had  assembled  quite  early  in  the  morning  in  Mr. 
Lincoln's  office  room  a  number  of  prominent  men.  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  sitting  in  his  office  chair  with  his  right  hand  resting  on  the 
table  in  front  of  him  when  he  heard  a  prominent  Senator,  with 
deep  emotion,  remark,  "If  we  only  could  do  right  as  a  people, 
God  would  give  us  a  victory."  Mr.  Lincoln  instantly  rose  to  his 
feet  and  cried,  in  that  singularly  shrill,  piercing  voice  of  his, 
"My  faith  is  greater  than  yours!"  As  he  stood  there,  head  and 
shoulders  above  all  of  them,  Senators,  Representatives,  Cabinet 
officials  and  army  officers  were  gazing  upon  his  shining  face. 
Looking  toward  the  first  speaker  he  repeated,  "My  faith  is  greater 
than  yours."  The  Senator  said :  "How  is  that,  Mr.  Lincoln  ?"  He 
answered:  "God  will  make  us  do  sufficiently  right  as  a  people  to 
give  us  the  victory."  This  answer  is  the  gauge  of  Lincoln's  faith, 
which  never  at  any  time  was  known  to  falter. 

There  is  something  very  close  to  faith  which  we  are  wont  to 
call  virtue — public  virtue  and  private  virtue — the  old  English  of 
it  is  "Valor." 

In  the  first  speech  I  ever  saw  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  he  said:  "Many 
free  countries  have  lost  their  liberties,  and  ours  may  lose  hers, 
but  if  she  shall,  be  it  my  proudest  boast,  not  that  I  was  the  last 
to  desert,  but  that  I  never,  never  deserted  her."  That  was  valor. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  fond  of  riding  on  horseback  in  the  early  even- 


ADDRESS  OF  GENERAL  0.  0.  HOWARD  259 

ing  to  the  Soldiers'  Home.  One  night  during  the  latter  part  of 
1863  he  rode  out  with  an  orderly.  When  part  way  he  sent  the 
orderly  back  for  something  which  he  had  left  at  the  White  House 
and  rode  on  alone.  After  dusk  he  galloped  up  to  the  home  stables, 
and  the  hostler  noticed  that  he  was  without  his  hat.  Mr.  Lin 
coln,  answering  the  hostler's  question,  said:  "Run  back  a  few 
hundred  yards  and  pick  it  up."  The  man  had  heard  a  shot,  but 
thought  little  of  it  till  Mr.  Lincoln  came  galloping  in.  He  found 
the  hat  and  brought  it  to  the  President,  who  was  still  waiting 
at  the  stable.  There  was  a  bullet  hole  near  the  top.  Mr.  Lin 
coln  made  the  man  promise  not  to  speak  of  it.  "It  was  probably 
an  accident  and  might  worry  my  family."  And  he  went  to  the 
Soldiers'  Home,  as  usual,  but  probably  never  again  alone.  A  man 
had  really  undertaken  to  shoot  him. 

You  see  in  this  incident,  and  in  a  great  many  others  that  you 
can  recall,  the  simple,  straightforward  courage  of  the  man.  It 
never  failed  him. 

Now,  there  was  another  characteristic,  and  that  was  a  uniform 
effort  to  obtain  knowledge  from  his  boyhood  to  his  manhood,  and, 
in  fact,  all  through  his  manhood.  If  you  will  remember  at  one 
time  when  he  was  a  lawyer  he  said,  "I  don't  understand  that  word 
'demonstration' — demonstration — demonstration.  Lawyers  are  al 
ways  talking  about  demonstration.  I  don't  know  what  they 
mean  by  it."  And  somebody  suggested  it  would  be  wise  for  him 
to  take  up  Euclid,  and  he  did  so.  He  went  through  the  whole  of 
that  large  book,  that  old  book  of  Euclid,  and  demonstrated  every 
proposition  in  it,  and  when  he  got  through  he  said:  "Now  I  un 
derstand  what  is  meant  by  demonstration." 

That  indicates  to  you  a  choice  bit  of  the  character  of  his  mind 
in  searching  for  the  truth.  He  never  was  satisfied  until  he  had 
completely  mastered  a  subject  that  he  had  put  his  mind  upon. 


260  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

At  one  time  some  of  the  officers  in  Washington  rather  slighted 
him.  He  would  go  to  them  for  advice  and  sometimes  get  quite 
a  rebuff.  He  made  up  his  mind  then  that  he  would  study  strategy 
for  himself,  and  he  got  the  hardest  books  we  had  upon  the  sub 
ject,  and  he  mastered  it,  and  that  is  why,  if  you  read  history 
carefully,  you  will  find  that  he  never  made  a  mistake  in  the  line 
of  strategy,  though  he  didn't  profess  to  be  a  general. 

We  have  in  the  schedule  of  virtues  the  word  temperance.  I 
heard  a  story  here  to  my  right  on  the  subject  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln's  temperance,  and  somebody  indicated  that  he  had  no  small 
vices.  After  he  was  nominated  to  be  President  of  the  United 
States,  a  committee  came  down  from  Chicago  to  his  home  in  Illi 
nois  and  said  to  him:  "You  are  nominated;  you  are  nominated." 
He  said:  "I  suppose  I  must  treat."  And  he  sent  out  and  a  man 
came  in  with  a  large  tray,  and  on  it  were  tumblers,  and  a  pitcher 
in  the  middle  filled  with  water — cold  water.  "Oh,"  he  said,  "this 
is  Adam's  ale.  We  can  ask  for  nothing  better  than  that."  And 
so  he  treated  the  committee,  drank  their  health  in  good  cold 
water.  But  you  may  say :  "Did  he  overdo  the  matter  ?"  Well,  no ; 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  temperate  simply  in  eating  and  drinking ;  he 
was  temperate  in  everything,  and,  what  is  more,  he  wouldn't  do 
business  with  any  man  while  he  was  in  a  passion. 

One  day  he  saw  Senator  Fessenden,  for  example,  coming  toward 
his  office  room.  Mr.  Fessenden  had  received  the  promise  of  some 
appointment  in  Maine  for  one  of  his  constituents.  The  case  had 
been  overlooked.  As  soon  as  Mr.  Lincoln  caught  sight  of  the  Sena 
tor  he  saw  he  was  angry,  and  as  Fessenden  approached  his  door 
he  called  out:  "Say,  Fessenden,  aren't  you  an  Episcopalian?"  Mr. 
Fessenden,  taken  aback  by  the  question,  answered :  "Yes,  I  belong 
to  that  persuasion."  Mr.  Lincoln  then  said:  "I  thought  so;  you 
swear  so  much  like  Seward.  Seward  is  an  Episcopalian.  But 


ADDRESS  OF  GENERAL  0.  0.  HOWARD  261 

you  ought  to  hear  Stanton  swear.  He  can  beat  you  both.  He 
is  a  Presbyterian."  By  this  time  Fessenden  was  in  hearty  good 
humor,  and  the  President,  sending  for  the  papers,  soon  settled  the 
case  to  the  Senator's  satisfaction. 

A  like  instance  occurred  when  a  poor  father  was  beside  himself 
pleading  for  the  life  of  his  son,  who  was  to  be  shot  the  next  day 
for  desertion.  Mr.  Lincoln  quieted  him  by  a  touching  story,  and 
then  put  the  coveted  pardon  of  his  son  into  the  father's  hand. 

You  notice  he  never  ended  any  of  those  cases  without  pardon 
ing  the  son. 

Now  patience.  I  never  saw  in  any  of  my  intercourse  with  Mr. 
Lincoln,  and  I  have  met  him  a  great  many  times,  and  General 
Dodge  has  seen  more  of  him  than  I  have,  but  I  never  knew,  and 
I  don't  think  Dodge  can  recall  an  occasion  in  which  Lincoln 
showed  the  slightest  impatience.  Always  patient!  A  poor  wom 
an  came  in  who  wanted  her  son  pardoned.  Her  son  had  been 
sleeping  on  post.  She  pleaded  her  case,  she  pleaded  it  very  well. 
The  boy  had  been  kept  without  sleep  too  long;  he  had  undertaken 
to  do  duty  for  another  young  man  the  night  before,  and  he  had 
a  second  night,  and  he  fell  asleep  on  post,  and  he  was  tried  by 
court-martial  and  sentenced  to  death.  Mr.  Lincoln  heard  the  case 
very  carefully  and  granted  the  petition.  A  little  later  a  woman 
more  advanced  in  age  came  in,  and  she  wanted  her  brother  out  of 
the  old  Capitol  Prison.  He  was  put  in  there  perhaps  by  Mr.  Stan- 
ton  for  using  disloyal  language.  In  those  days  we  used  to  clap 
them  in  prison  sometimes  for  things  that  now  they  can  say  on 
the  street.  He  heard  the  old  lady's  case  with  great  care — prob 
ably  the  man  deserved  to  be  put  in  the  old  Capitol,  but  he  par 
doned  him  and  let  him  out.  Then  he  went  with  her  to  the  door, 
and  just  as  he  was  about  to  part  with  her  she  said:  "Oh,  you 
don't  know  how  grateful  I  am,  Mr.  Lincoln;  I  don't  know  what  I 


262  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

can  say.  I  will  say  this,  I  hope  I  may  meet  you  in  Heaven." 
"Well,"  Mr.  Lincoln  said,  "in  the  rough  and  tumble  of  this  world, 
I  don't  know,  I  may  never  get  to  that  beautiful  place  you  speak 
of;  I  may  never  get  there.  But,"  he  added,  "I  know  this,  it  is 
the  best  wish  you  could  make  for  me."  And  then  he  turned 
around  as  she  went  out,  remarking:  "Speed,  it  seldom  happens  to 
a  man  to  be  able  to  make  two  people  happy  in  the  same  day."  And 
then  he  said :  "I  hope  it  will  be  said  of  me  when  I  am  gone,  by 
those  who  care  for  me,  by  those  who  love  me  most,  that  I  never 
allowed  an  opportunity  to  pass  where  I  could  pluck  a  thistle  and 
plant  a  flower  where  I  thought  a  flower  would  grow." 

Now,  there  is  another  subject  I  approach  with  a  good  deal 
of  delicacy,  but  I  put  it  down,  and  you  must  pardon  me  for  it.  I 
don't  believe  much  in  religiousness,  never  did,  but  there  is  one 
word  that  I  do  not  know  any  substitute  for — the  clergymen  call 
it  Godliness.  Well,  Abraham  Lincoln  had  Godliness. 

General  Sickles — I  wish  he  were  here  to-night — told  me  over 
and  over  again  in  the  first  McKinley  political  campaign  this  story. 
He  said :  "After  I  was  wounded  I  was  carried  to  Washington  after 
Gettysburg,  and  I  was  lying  on  the  stretcher.  People  thought  I 
would  die.  While  I  was  there  Mr.  Lincoln,  with  his  little  boy 
Tad,  came  in  to  see  me,  and  he  began  to  talk  to  me,  and  I  saw 
that  he  was  a  little  too  sympathetic  to  suit  me,  so  I  began  to  rally 
him,  and  then  I  said :  'Why,  I  understand  your  cabinet  and  your 
self  were  trying  to  get  out  of  Washington  just  before  the  battle 
of  Gettysburg,'  and  Mr.  Lincoln  shook  his  head  and  said,  'No,  we 
were  not;  no,  we  were  not.  We  had  to  take  some  precautions/ 
he  owned."  General  Sickles  pressed  him  a  little  hard,  and  he  said : 
"Well,  Sickles,  if  you  want  to  know  what  I  was  doing  about  that 
time  I  will  tell  you.  There  was  one  room  in  the  White  House 
where  there  was  very  little  furniture,  and  I  went  in  there  and  I 


ADDRESS  OF  GENERAL  0.  0.  HOWARD  263 

shut  the  door,  and  I  got  down  on  my  knees  and  said  to  the  Lord, 
'You  know  I  have  done  all  I  can.  This  is  your  struggle  and  I 
have  done  all  I  can!'  And  then  I  cried  out  with  all  my  heart, 
'Oh,  God,  give  us  a  victory.'  Then  suddenly  it  occurred  to  me  to 
say:  'Oh,  that  I  might  have  some  token  by  which  I  could  be  as 
sured  of  a  victory.'  Then  such  a  sweet  spirit  came  over  me,  such 
an  indescribable  spirit  that  I  was  as  assured  of  a  victory  before 
I  heard  the  news,  as  I  was  after." 

There  was  one  young  man  out  in  the  West  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  very  fond  of.  His  father  used  to  entertain  him  on  those 
lawyers'  tours,  and  he  always  said  to  the  young  man :  "Whenever 
you  see  me,  stretch  out  both  hands."  Mr.  Lincoln  remembered 
him.  He  became  first  a  professor,  then  afterwards  a  president,  I 
think  it  was  of  the  University  of  Illinois,  so  called  at  that  time, 
and  Mr.  Lincoln  appointed  him  on  the  Board  of  Visitors  sent  to 
West  Point,  and  he  went  there,  and  the  board,  knowing  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  his  friend,  made  him  president  of  the  board, 
and  after  they  got  through  with  their  work  he  went  to  Wash 
ington  and  into  the  War  Department  to  get  some  facts  that  were 
necessary  to  complete  his  report.  "It  occurred  to  me  while  there," 
he  said,  "that  I  would  like  to  see  Mr.  Lincoln  in  that,  the  darkest 
period  of  the  war,  and  I  sat  down  and  wrote  him  a  short  note: 
'Dear  Mr.  Lincoln,  give  me  five  minutes,  please.'  Mr.  Lincoln 
folded  the  paper,  turned  it  over  and  wrote  on  the  back :  'I  will  give 
you  an  hour.  A.  Lincoln.' ''  And  he  went  to  Lincoln's  office. 
When  he  came  in  Mr.  Lincoln  rose  up  to  his  full  height,  stretched 
out  both  hands  to  him  and  gave  him  a  welcome  and  they  sat  down, 
and  they  communed  together.  Just  before  he  went  away  he  said : 
"Now,  Mr.  Lincoln,  I  want  to  ask  you  a  question.  I  hardly  dare 
do  it,  but  if  it  isn't  proper  you  needn't  answer  it,  of  course."  Mr. 
Lincoln  said :  "Well,  if  I  can't  answer  it  I  won't.  Go  ahead."  He 


264  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

said :  "Out  in  Illinois  they  are  very  anxious  about  the  termination 
of  this  conflict.  Shall  we  succeed  in  this  war?"  He  said  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  changed  color  and  became  haggard,  great  tears  ran 
down  his  face,  and  it  was  some  time  before  he  could  speak  at  all, 
and  then  when  he  did  he  said :  "President  Mannes,  we  shall  suc 
ceed  in  this  war,  but  I  don't  expect  to  live  to  see  its  termination 
or  its  consummation."  "Now,  Mr.  Lincoln,"  said  the  other,  "sim 
ply  just  one  more  question:  Would  you  be  willing  to  tell  me  on 
what  you  base  your  opinion?"  Then  Mr.  Lincoln  began  in  that 
singular  negative  way  of  his:  "I  do  not  base  it  upon  my  con 
stituency,  though  no  man  ever  had  any  better  constituency  than 
we  have,  or  more  faithful ;  I  do  not  base  it  on  my  generals,  though 
no  king  or  potentate  ever  had  better  generals,  abler  men,  ready 
and  willing  to  sacrifice  everything  that  they  have  for  the  good 
of  the  Republic;  I  do  not  even  base  it  on  the  boys  in  blue  of  the 
army  and  the  navy — no,  no;  though  no  nation  on  earth  ever  had 
a  better  army  than  ours,  ready  to  give  everything,  even  life  it 
self,  for  the  salvation  of  the  Republic.  No,  no.  I  will  tell  you 
what  I  base  it  on — on  the  God  of  our  fathers  who  hath  brought 
this  Nation  hitherto  and  will  never,  never  suffer  this  Nation  to 
perish !" 

There  is  one  other  little  item,  brotherly  kindness.  I  was  taken 
very  ill  out  on  Meridian  Hill.  I  was  a  little  overworked  and  had 
a  bilious  turn,  and  for  about  three  days  I  was  very  near  the  grave 
— delirious.  After  that,  in  about  three  days  more,  I  was  up  and 
at  work  again.  Well,  during  that  time  Mr.  Lincoln  came  out  to 
see  me.  First  he  came  with  Charlotte  Cushman,  whose  name  you 
have  heard,  to  inquire  about  me.  I  have  a  very  dim  recollection 
of  his  coming.  The  next  time  he  came  with  that  same  little  boy 
who  seemed  to  attend  him  always,  Tad,  whom  he  loved  so  much, 
and  Tad  walked  with  the  sentinel,  backwards  and  forwards,  while 


ADDRESS  OF  GENERAL  0.  0.  HOWARD  265 

his  father  went  to  see  the  doctor  to  see  if  he  could  find  out  any 
thing  about  my  case,  and  see  if  anything  could  be  done  for  me, 
and  Tad  said  to  the  sentinel:  "Is  the  Colonel  very  sick?"  "Yes." 
"Awful  sick?"  "Yes."  "Well,"  he  says,  "father  thinks  he  is  not 
going  to  live" ;  and  I  was  then  only  a  very  common  colonel  among 
thousands  of  others.  It  was  not  only  my  camp  that  he  visited 
and  looked  at  my  parade  and  congratulated  me  upon  success,  but 
the  Twelfth  New  York  and  Burnside's  regiments,  and  all  the 
others  around  about.  And  think  of  the  largeness  of  heart  of 
the  man  who  could  so  take  us  in  and  show  us  that  personal  ten 
derness.  Wasn't  it  brotherly  kindness? 

He  once  came  down  to  Brooks  Station,  and  I  saw  him  coming 
in  through  that  bower  that  the  Germans  made  for  me,  and  he 
was  too  tall  to  come  in.  He  took  off  that  tall  hat  of  his,  that 
postoffice  hat,  and  bowed  his  head  as  he  came  in,  and  he  sat 
down  upon  my  cot  and  admired  my  robe  made  of  a  South  Amer 
ican  sheep,  its  construction  and  beauty.  Then  he  saw  the  tablets 
upon  the  wall  that  the  American  Tract  Society  had  given  me,  one 
for  every  day  in  the  month,  and  that  day  was,  "The  Lord  is  my 
Shepherd;  I  shall  not  want,"  and  he  and  I  looked  at  it  together, 
and  I  am  sure  those  words  sunk  into  his  heart  as  they  did  into 
mine.  It  was  not  long  after  that  that  I  had  some  trouble  and  I 
came  home  greatly  discouraged,  and  I  looked  up  where  Abraham 
Lincoln  had  looked  and  I  said,  "The  Lord  is  my  Shepherd ;  I  shall 
not  want!" — why  didn't  I  think  of  it  before? 

And  after  Chancellorsville,  when  ambition  sought  my  removal, 
they  carried  the  case  up  to  Mr.  Lincoln  and  asked:  "Wouldn't  it 
be  a  wise  thing  to  remove  General  Howard  from  the  command  of 
the  Eleventh  Corps?  He  hasn't  succeeded  very  well."  You  all 
know  that  Stonewall  Jackson  in  that  battle  was  more  to  blame 
than  I  was.  But  Mr.  Lincoln,  after  hearing  them  carefully,  wind- 


266  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

ing  one  foot  of  his  about  twice  around  his  leg,  said:  "Let  him 
alone;  let  him  alone;  give  him  time  and  he  will  bring  things 
straight."  That  is  what  kept  me  in  the  army. 

Most  of  you  have  read  a  little  of  the  last  interview  that  I  had 
with  Mr.  Lincoln  in  Washington.  I  spent  over  an  hour  with  him, 
and  he  called  my  special  attention  to  what  he  called  afterwards 
the  "loyal  refugees  of  Kentucky  and  of  Tennessee  and  of  Vir 
ginia."  Your  president,  when  he  introduced  me,  spoke  of  our 
Cumberland  Gap  Tennessee  College.  That  is  right  in  the  centre 
of  those  three  portions  of  Virginia,  of  Tennessee  and  of  the  Ken 
tucky  Mountains.  Mr.  Lincoln  turned  and  looked  in  my  eyes.  I 
can  never  forget  the  expression.  "Oh,  General,"  he  said,  "they 
are  loyal  there,  they  are  loyal."  And  we  have  built  up  an  insti 
tution  there  to  his  name  as  a  monument  for  the  benefit  of  the 
boys  and  girls  of  the  mountains.  We  have  got  640  young  men 
and  young  women,  the  brightest  and  best  in  the  country.  People 
call  them  "poor  whites,"  sometimes  "poor  white  trash."  Then 
WE  are  trash.  They  are  not  trash.  They  are  the  very  epitome 
of  Americanism,  and  I  do  not  think  it  is  anything  against  them 
that  they  were  always  loyal  to  the  flag. 

I  was  going  through  a  car  the  other  day,  and  there  was  an 
opera  troupe  coming  from  New  York,  going  up  to  Canada,  almost 
all  young  ladies — there  were  some  gentlemen  among  them — and 
the  moment  I  appeared,  I  don't  know  why,  they  cried:  "Robert 
E.  Lee!  Robert  E.  Lee!"  I  said:  "Oh,  you  are  mistaken;  I  fought 
on  the  other  side."  Yes,  I  fought  on  the  other  side.  We  may 
be  in  the  minority,  but  let  us  stick  to  it;  let  us  stick  to  it  till 
death.  We  don't  want  anything  wrong;  we  don't  want  any  spot 
on  the  escutcheon  of  the  Republican  party.  We  want  purity  and 
progress  and  we  propose  to  have  them ;  we  will  have  them ! 

There  is  only  one  more  item  and  that  is  this:  You  will  remem- 


ADDRESS  OF  GENERAL  0.  0.  HOWARD  267 

ber  the  book,  Winston  Churchill's  work,  in  which  he  so  beautifully 
represents  the  spirit  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  represents  also 
his  roughness.  In  that  he  is  mistaken.  Oh,  how  often  I  have 
compared  notes  with  other  men!  There  was  no  real  roughness  in 
Abraham  Lincoln.  A  little  homeliness — we  are  not  all  of  us  hand 
some;  we  can't  be.  But  here  he  took  the  beautiful  Virginia,  you 
remember,  to  the  window  of  his  room  and  looked  forth  down 
there  to  Alexandria  and  said:  "When  that  star  appeared  there  of 
the  Confederacy,  and  I  saw  that  flag,  oh,  how  it  offended  me,  and 
I  was  worrying.  Then  I  thought  it  was  necessary  I  should  suffer 
for  the  Republic";  and  in  conclusion  he  used  these  words  to  her: 
"I  have  not  suffered  BY  the  South— I  have  suffered  WITH  the 
South.  Your  sorrow  has  been  my  sorrow,  and  your  pain  has  been 
my  pain.  What  you  have  lost  I  have  lost,  and  what  you  have 
gained,"  he  added,  sublimely,  "I  have  gained." 

Just  think  of  the  sermon  of  it!  The  minister  who  sits  here 
would  say:  Add  to  that  faith,  virtue;  to  virtue,  temperance;  to 
temperance,  Godliness;  to  Godliness,  brotherly  kindness,  and  to 
brotherly  kindness,  charity.  A  man  who  could  rise  right  up 
and  show  such  love  to  God  and  love  to  his  fellow  man,  even  to  his 
enemy,  cannot  readily  be  pointed  out  to-day. 


THE  TWENTY-FIRST 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1907 


Address  of 
GEN.  JAMES  H.  WILSON 


JAMES  HARRISON  WILSON,  LL.D. 

General  Wilson  was  born  in  Shawneetown,  111.,  in 
1837.  He  was  educated  at  McKendree  College  and  at 
West  Point  (graduated  1860).  At  the  outbreak  of  the 
war  he  was  serving  in  the  engineering  corps  Department 
of  Oregon.  He  was  madt  Lieutenant- Colonel  of  Volun 
teers,  1862;  Captain  U.  S.  Engineers  and  Brigadier- 
General  of  Volunteers,  1863.  In  1866  he  was  brevetted 
Major- General  U.  S.  A.,  "for  gallant  and  meritorious 
services  during  the  war."  He  was  one  of  the  most  dis 
tinguished  engineering  officers  on  the  Union  side  during 
the  Civil  War,  winning  special  fame  in  the  Vicksburg 
and  Chattanooga  campaigns.  After  voluntarily  resign 
ing  from  the  army  in  1870,  he  was  connected  with  many 
important  engineering  works  at  home  and  abroad.  He 
served  with  distinction  in  the  volunteer  army  in  the 
Spanish- American  War;  commanded  the  American 
forces  in  the  China  Relief  Expedition,  and  represented 
the  U.  S.  A.  at  the  coronation  of  Edward  VII.  He  is 
the  author  of  numerous  works  of  military  biography. 


ADDRESS  OF 

GENERAL  JAMES   H.  WILSON 


Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  I  hardly  know  why  I 
should  be  called  upon  to  address  the  Republican  Club  upon  an  oc 
casion  of  this  sort,  especially  in  reference  to  Abraham  Lincoln, 
unless  it  be  because  Abraham  Lincoln  and  my  father  were  cap 
tains  together  in  the  Black  Hawk  War. 

Abraham  Lincoln's  company,  I  believe,  all  deserted.  Captain 
Harrison  Wilson's  company  contained  all  the  brigadier  and  major 
generals.  They  all  remained  in  the  war,  and  one  of  them  sur 
vived  to  become  a  major-general  in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion.  It 
was  my  good  fortune  many  years  afterwards  to  be  called  to  a 
bureau  office  in  the  War  Department  during  the  days  of  the  great 
Rebellion.  I  had  hardly  arrived  in  the  capital  city  when  I  re 
ceived  an  invitation  to  dinner  at  the  White  House,  and  it  was 
my  good  fortune  to  partake  of  its  hospitality  frequently  there 
after. 

I  was  doubtful  as  to  whether  or  not  the  President  had  mistaken 
me  for  some  one  else,  but  he  assured  me  in  a  way  that  was  quite 
acceptable  that  he  had  made  no  mistake.  In  addition  to  dining 
several  times  with  him  en  f  amille,  I  went  to  the  theatre  with  him, 
and  upon  these  occasions  he  resorted  to  his  well-known  methods 
of  entertainment,  which  were  most  acceptable  to  me.  It  so  hap 
pened  that  just  about  that  time  one  of  his  youngest  brigadier- 
generals  had  been  captured  up  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia  with  sev- 


272  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

eral  hundred  mules.  He  said  to  me:  "Oh,  no,  General,  I  don't 
care  about  the  brigadiers;  I  can  make  them;  but  I  have  to  buy 
mules,  and  they  cost  money." 

Well,  now,  he  did  make  brigadier-generals,  and  one  of  the  most 
pathetic  of  all  the  stories  with  reference  to  his  power  of  manu 
facturing  brigadiers  I  am  reminded  of  this  evening  by  a  remark 
of  my  preceptor  and  friend,  General  Howard,  in  regard  to  Maine. 
The  great  statesmen  of  that  State  sent  down  to  Washington,  with 
letters  of  commendation,  a  young  man  of  whom  they  thought  well. 
They  did  not  ask  to  have  him  made  a  high  officer,  but  they  asked 
that  he  might  be  appointed  to  the  position  of  second  lieutenant 
of  artillery  in  the  regular  army.  Mr.  Lincoln  received  him  with 
kindness.  His  credentials  came  from  William  Pitt  Fessenden 
and  Hannibal  Hamlin,  and  they  were  sufficient  to  make  him  an 
Ambassador  to  England.  But  he  wanted  simply  to  be  a  second 
lieutenant.  Mr.  Lincoln  gave  him  a  note  to  the  Secretary  of  War, 
asking  that  this  appointment  might  be  made,  and  after  an  hour 
or  so  his  young  friend  came  back  looking  very  much  dejected. 
"What  is  the  matter,  Jamison?"  asked  Mr.  Lincoln.  "Mr.  Stanton 
says  he  won't  do  it."  "Well,  I  guess  if  Stanton  said  he  wouldn't 
he  won't.  You  know  Stanton  takes  the  regular  army  under  his 
protection,  and  I  haven't  much  influence  with  him  in  regard  to 
that  branch  of  the  service ;  but  I'll  tell  you  what  I  will  do,  Jami 
son,  I  will  make  you  a  brigadier-general  of  volunteers."  And  he 
made  him  a  brigadier-general  of  volunteers,  and  fortunately  it 
turned  out  that  he  was  a  good  one.  When  you  think  about  it, 
what  the  country  had  done  for  Lincoln  in  compelling  him  to  make 
major-generals,  you  will  perhaps  think  better  of  his  exercising 
the  appointing  power.  You  will  remember  he  had  a  "Young 
Napoleon"  on  his  hands;  he  had  "Old  Rosy"  on  his  hands;  he  had 
curled  darlings  of  my  lady's  chamber  on  his  hands ;  he  had  Roman 


ADDRESS  OF  GENERAL  JAMES  H.  WILSON  273 

pro-consuls  on  his  hands;  he  had  every  sort  and  condition  of 
major-generals,  and  on  the  top  of  them  he  had  "Fighting  Joe." 
Well,  if  you  will  now  take  a  glance  at  the  history  of  the  past 
you  will  see  that  he  might  well  have  doubted  the  predilections  of 
his  countrymen  and  turned  in  to  make  a  few  brigadiers  on  his 
own  account.  The  subject  is  one  that  might  be  dwelt  upon  until 
the  "wee  sma'  hours,"  but  I  shall  pass  on  to  another  subject. 

It  so  happened  that  Mr.  Lincoln  lived  during  his  earlier  days  at 
New  Salem,  a  little  village  six  miles  north  and  a  little  easterly 
from  Springfield,  on  the  banks  of  the  Sangamon.  Before  leaving 
there  he  had  consented  to  become  a  candidate  for  the  legislature. 
The  nominating  conventions  in  those  days  were  held  on  Saturday. 
The  first  business  in  order  was  to  dispose  of  the  neighborhood 
fights,  The  Cleary's  Grove  gang  were  desperate  men,  and  before 
the  convention  was  called  to  order  a  fight  took  place  between  one 
of  the  gang  and  one  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  friends.  You  will  all  re 
member  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  six  feet  four.  Pushing  through  the 
crowd  that  surrounded  the  combatants,  he  grasped  his  friend's 
opponent  by  the  back  of  the  neck  and  the  slack  of  the  trousers 
and  threw  him  outside  of  the  limits  of  the  ring.  He  then  stepped 
upon  the  platform,  which  in  those  days  was  always  a  stump,  and 
this  is  the  speech  that  tradition  credits  him  with: 

"Friends  and  Fellow-Citizens:  I  am  plain  Abe  Lincoln.  I  have 
consented  to  become  a  candidate  for  the  legislature.  My  political 
principles  are  like  the  old  woman's  dance — short  and  sweet.  I  be 
lieve  in  a  United  States  bank;  I  believe  in  a  protective  tariff;  I 
believe  in  a  system  of  internal  improvements,  and  I  am  for  free 
dom  for  every  human  creature.  If  on  that  platform  you  can  give 
me  your  suffrages  I  shall  be  much  obliged.  If  not,  no  harm 
done,  and  I  remain,  respectfully  yours,  Abe  Lincoln." 

Now,  I  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  that  speech  was 


274  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

delivered  seventy-five  years  ago,  and  that  it  carried  in  its  bosom 
the  four  cardinal  questions  of  American  politics,  the  four  car 
dinal  principles  of  the  Republican  party,  which  was  born  twenty- 
five  years  thereafter.  Those  fundamental  principles  remained  in 
the  platform  of  the  Republican  party  till  the  end  of  the  war. 
There  was  no  surplusage,  not  a  word  too  many  in  that  speech. 
It  contained  a  faith  as  broad  as  the  great  Republic.  It  showed 
the  primal  man,  and  that  no  pent-up  Utica  confined  his  powers. 
And  you  members  of  the  Republican  Club  of  New  York  may  well 
pause  to  consider  whether  Republicanism  as  it  is  to-day  has  not 
passed  beyond  those  limits.  Imagine  Abraham  Lincoln  here  to 
day.  What  would  he  say  with  reference  to  the  doctrines  of  the 
Republican  party  as  they  are  now  promulgated  and  practiced? 
Would  he  not  be  like  that  Pennsylvania  Dutchman  who,  having 
become  prosperous,  went  down  to  Philadelphia  to  get  a  portrait 
of  his  father  painted?  He  called  upon  the  most  distinguished 
artist  in  the  city  and  said :  "I  vish  to  haf  a  portrait  of  mein  fader 
painted."  "Well,"  says  the  artist,  "send  your  father  down  and  I 
will  make  a  sketch  of  him  and  paint  his  portrait."  "But  mein 
fader  is  dead."  "Send  me  down  a  photograph  and  I  will  see  if 
I  cannot  reproduce  his  likeness."  "But  I  haf  no  photograph." 
"Oh,  well,  then,  describe  your  father  to  me."  "Well,  mein  fader 
was  a  big  man;  he  had  broad  shoulders  and  a  high  chest;  he  had 
high  cheek  bones  and  blue  eyes,  and  a  stout  chin  and  a  big  beard." 
"All  right,  my  friend;  I  will  see  what  I  can  do  for  you."  And 
after  a  few  weeks  he  sent  word  back  to  the  countryman  that 
the  portrait  was  ready  and  to  come  down  with  his  family  and  look 
it  over.  So  they  came  down,  were  ushered  into  the  studio,  the 
covering  was  thrown  off,  and  there  was  the  stout  figure.  The 
farmer  looked  at  it  for  a  moment,  and  then  said:  "Yes,  dat  is 


ADDRESS  OF  GENERAL  JAMES  H.  WILSON  275 

mein  fader  that  I  loved;  that  is  mein  venerated  fader  vat  is 
dead ;  but,  mein  Gott !  how  he  has  changed !" 

Now,  I  am  not  undertaking  to  sketch  Mr.  Lincoln,  but  of  one 
thing  you  may  be  assured — his  Republicanism  was  of  the  orthodox 
character,  and  we  may  believe  that  if  he  had  lived  to  guide  us  the 
change  in  party  practice  at  least  would  not  have  been  so  great. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  somewhat  of  a  strategist,  as  General  Howard 
has  told  us.  You  will  recall  when  Lee  began  thundering  north 
ward  from  the  Eappahannock  and  Fighting  Joe  with  his  army 
was  on  the  north  side  of  that  stream  he  wrote  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Lincoln,  saying  that  he  thought  he  would  throw  his  army  across 
the  river  to  the  south  and  take  Lee  in  flank.  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote 
back  to  him:  "I  note  your  proposition,  and  under  the  right  cir 
cumstances  it  would  be  proper,  but  if  I  were  in  your  place  I  do 
not  think  I  would  do  it,  for  with  your  army  half  across  the 
river,  Lee  would  surely  turn  upon  you  and  then  you  would  find 
yourself  like  the  bull  half  jumped  over  the  fence — unable  either 
to  gore  to  the  front  or  kick  to  the  rear." 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  also  a  great  politician.  He  was  surrounded 
and  strengthened  by  great  men,  some  of  whom  opposed  him  and 
some  of  whom  assisted  him.  Amongst  those  who  were  most  influ 
ential  in  shaping  his  destiny  was  his  great  rival,  Stephen  A. 
Douglas.  You  will  all  recall  how  in  that  wonderful  joint  debate 
Mr.  Lincoln  gave  utterance  to  his  thought  about  the  house  di 
vided  against  itself  which  could  not  stand.  His  friends  thought 
it  was  a  false  movement  on  his  part.  Judge  Douglas  took  every 
advantage  of  it,  but  in  the  end  "the  house  divided  against  itself" 
made  Lincoln  President  of  the  United  States,  but  it  did  more. 
The  joint  debate  made  Stephen  A.  Douglas  his  friend,  and  Stephen 
A.  Douglas,  after  having  put  himself  back  of  the  great  cause 
for  which  Mr.  Lincoln  stood,  came  to  be  the  one  man  who  brought 


276  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

more  Northern  Democrats  into  the  United  States  Army  and  into 
the  fold  of  the  Republican  party  than  all  the  other  Democratic 
statesmen  put  together. 

Mr.  Lincoln,  however,  had  another  great  assistant,  the  greatest 
of  all  those  who  stood  with  him  in  the  terrible  days.  I  mean 
Edwin  M.  Stanton. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  know  him  as  well  as  to  know  Mr. 
Lincoln,  and  in  a  small  way  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  see  the 
greatness  of  the  man,  for  whenever  I  went  to  him  with  requisi 
tions  to  furnish  forth  the  army,  he  said :  "Give  it  to  them,  though 
it  take  the  last  dollar  in  the  Treasury,  then  they  cannot  say  we 
did  not  support  them."  Short  and  stout,  strong,  virtuous  and 
aggressive,  in  my  humble  judgment  he  more  than  any  other  man 
put  the  force  into  the  administration  which  made  it  victorious. 

Philosophy  teaches  us  that  mankind  have  risen  to  their  hi^h 
estate  by  the  exercise  of  two  faculties,  reason  and  the  power  of 
co-operation.  With  such  men  as  Stanton  to  support  the  Presi 
dent,  the  combination  between  reason  and  strength  in  that  ad 
ministration  was  perfect.  And  another  illustration  of  the 
strength  of  combination  is  found  in  the  history  of  his  strongest, 
most  victorious,  most  successful  general.  I  refer  to  Ulysses  S. 
Grant,  than  whom  no  more  modest,  no  more  manly,  no  more  con 
stant,  no  more  aggressive  general  ever  lived.  But  he,  too,  was 
supported  by  a  combination.  His  Fidus  Achates,  his  right  arm, 
his  strong,  aggressive  and  ever  vigilant  supporter  was  John  A. 
Kawlins,  a  man  who,  when  twenty-three  years  of  age,  was  burning 
charcoal  for  a  living.  He  was  a  Douglas  Democrat,  and  he  stood 
by  General  Grant  and  "stayed  him  from  falling"  until  he  was 
victorious,  as  Stanton  stood  by  Abraham  Lincoln  until  the  whole 
country  was  victorious. 


THE  TWENTY-SECOND 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  tht 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1908 


Address  of 
HON.  MORRIS  SHEPPARD 


MORRIS  SHEPPARD 

Congressman  Sheppard  was  born  in  Wheatville,  Morris 
Co.,  Texas,  1875.  He  graduated  from  the  University  of 
Texas,  1895  an^  1897,  and  from  the  Yale  Law  School, 
1898.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1897.  Since 
October,  1902,  he  has  been  Member  of  Congress  (Demo 
crat)  for  the  First  Texas  District. 


ADDRESS  OF 

HON.  MORRIS    SHEPPARD 


Mr.  President,  Ladies,  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Republican  Club: 
On  the  wall  of  a  Southern  home  there  is  to-day  a  letter  in  a  frame, 
a  letter  which  reads:  "Executive  Mansion,  Washington,  Feb.  10, 
1865.  Hon.  A.  H.  Stephens:  According  to  your  agreement,  your 
nephew,  Lieutenant  Stephens,  goes  to  you  bearing  this  note. 
Please  in  return  to  select  and  send  me  that  officer  of  the  same 
rank,  imprisoned  at  Richmond,  whose  physical  condition  most 
urgently  requires  his  release.  Respectfully,  A.  Lincoln."  In  a 
corner  of  the  frame  is  a  photograph  of  Lincoln  bearing  his  signa 
ture  in  his  own  handwriting.  At  the  close  of  the  Hampton  Roads 
Conference  early  in  1865  Lincoln  had  asked  Alexander  Stephens, 
the  Vice-President  of  the  Confederacy  and  one  of  the  Southern 
Commissioners,  if  he  could  do  anything  for  him  personally. 
"Nothing,"  said  Stephens,  "unless  you  can  send  me  my  nephew  who 
has  been  a  prisoner  on  Johnson's  Island  for  twenty  months."  "I 
shall  be  glad  to  do  it;  let  me  have  his  name,"  was  the  prompt 
reply.  A  few  days  later  Lieutenant  Stephens  left  for  Richmond, 
where  the  exchange  was  effected,  bearing  the  letter  and  the  picture 
before  described,  both  the  gifts  of  Lincoln,  and  for  more  than 
forty  years  they  have  remained  the  chief  treasures  of  a  Dixie  fire 
side.  This  incident  was  but  one  of  a  host  of  others,  showing  in 
Lincoln  a  spirit  that  poised  on  wings  of  light  above  the  wrath 
and  gloom  of  war. 


280  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

But  for  other  and  wider  reasons  it  is  proper  that  the  portrait  of 
Lincoln  should  adorn  this  Southern  home.  He  was  born  of  South 
ern  parentage  on  Kentucky  soil.  His  father  was  a  Virginian ;  his 
grandfather  was  a  Virginian,  his  mother  was  a  Virginian.  His 
mother !  The  very  word  hallows  the  lips  that  utter  it.  The  world 
has  not  yet  grasped  its  debt  to  the  mothers  of  mankind.  The 
mother  is  the  luster  and  the  hope  of  history.  She  is  the  central 
figure  of  all  human  sacrifice.  Life  is  the  flower  of  her  agony,  the 
fruitage  of  her  pain.  Humanity  is  cradled  in  her  tears.  That 
men  may  be,  she  fronts  the  grave,  yes,  at  each  birth  endures  a 
living  crucifixion. 

Lincoln's  mother  possessed  in  marvelous  measure  the  qualities 
that  make  maternity  sacred.  He  never  forgot  her  prayers,  prayers 
that  made  the  cabin  in  the  wilderness  a  temple  grander  than  St. 
Peter's  or  Cologne.  His  father,  always  in  deepest  poverty,  had 
but  recently  removed  from  Kentucky  largely  because  the  spread 
of  slavery  and  the  aristocracy  surrounding  it  tended  to  degrade 
the  status  of  the  whites  who  were  compelled  to  labor  with  their 
hands.  Thus  in  his  earliest  years  were  permanently  impressed  on 
Lincoln's  soul  the  ideas  of  liberty,  equality  and  personal  rectitude 
which  led  him  later  to  acclaim  that  day  the  happiest  in  history 
when  there  should  be  neither  slave  nor  drunkard  in  the  world. 
Such  was  his  mother's  influence  that  he  afterwards  ascribed  to  her 
all  that  he  was  or  hoped  to  be.  The  clumsy,  hand-hewn  coffin 
in  which  she  was  interred,  the  lack  of  ceremony  due  to  the  fact 
that  few  ministers  visited  that  remote  vicinity,  the  lonely  grave 
in  the  clearing,  deepened  the  sadness  that  solitude  and  hardship 
had  implanted  in  his  nature.  He  did  not  rest  until  several 
months  afterwards  he  knelt  in  the  snow  while  a  wandering 
preacher,  summoned  at  his  earnest  instance,  delivered  a  funeral 
sermon  over  her  grave.  It  should  be  said  here  that  the  devoted 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  MORRIS  SHEPPARD         281 

woman,  a  native  of  Kentucky,  who  succeeded  Lincoln's  mother  in 
the  Lincoln  home,  recognized  at  once  his  unusual  capacities  and 
employed  every  means  to  encourage  and  develop  them.  To  her 
he  gave  a  love  and  reverence  that  were  reflected  in  his  spotless 
conduct.  The  teachings  of  these  two  women  gave  gentleness  and 
grace  to  all  his  acts  and  must  have  prompted  deed  after  deed  of 
mercy  in  the  memorable  conflict  with  which  his  name  is  forever 
associated. 

When  Lincoln  in  1832  announced  his  candidacy  for  the  Illi 
nois  legislature  he  stated  that  his  supreme  purpose  was  to  win  the 
esteem  of  his  fellow-men  by  being  worthy  of  it.  Thus  at  the  age 
of  23  he  proclaimed  the  basic  impulse  of  his  career,  the  ambi 
tion  to  be  useful  to  mankind.  This  impulse  was  but  prophetic  of 
the  principle  of  brotherhood  that  was  to  mark  the  consummation 
of  his  efforts  and  to  signalize  his  relation  to  history.  Probably 
no  other  man  of  commanding  fame  ever  struggled  so  eifectively 
against  so  unpromising  an  environment.  The  family  had  removed 
from  Kentucky  to  Indiana,  from  Indiana  to  Illinois,  following  the 
frontier's  westward  sweep,  locating  in  secluded  forests,  felling 
trees  with  which  to  construct  the  crudest  shelter  and  opening  land 
for  cultivation.  In  the  labors  of  the  farm  and  woods  young  Lin 
coln  shared  to  the  fullest  degree.  The  ordinary  facilities  of  the 
most  rudimentary  education  were  beyond  his  reach.  His  entire 
schooling  did  not  comprise  twelve  months.  Yet  he  managed  to 
obtain  and  study  with  absorbing  eagerness  Bunyan,  ^Esop,  Weems' 
Washington  and  the  Bible.  Perhaps  .ZEsop  inspired  his  celebrated 
habit  of  reinforcing  argument  with  parable  and  anecdote.  With 
what  prophetic  interest  must  he  have  followed  the  trials  of  Wash 
ington  and  the  patriot  armies  in  founding  the  nation  he  was  to 
be  summoned  to  preserve.  He  seems  to  have  been  especially  im 
pressed  with  Washington's  unvarying  trust  in  God,  a  sentiment  he 


282  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

approved  and  emulated.  In  the  Bible,  of  which  he  was  a  con 
stant  student,  he  found  the  doctrine  that  supplied  the  definition  of 
his  existence,  the  doctrine  embodied  in  Christ's  answer  to  the  law 
yer  in  the  temple,  the  doctrine  of  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  the  doctrine  that  Lincoln  considered  of  it 
self  sufficient  to  form  the  basis  of  a  church,  the  doctrine  his  life 
proclaimed  and  his  death  ennobled,  the  doctrine  of  which  the  Amer 
ican  Declaration  of  Independence  is  but  another  form,  the  doc 
trine  on  which  rests  all  liberty  and  progress.  Such  were  the  mate 
rials  with  which  this  youthful  Vulcan  hammered  his  being  into 
heroic  mould  and  purpose.  In  that  stern  pioneer  age  labor  of 
severest  form  was  honor's  essence,  equality  was  the  natural  state, 
and  men  were  loved  for  what  they  could  contribute  to  the  general 
good.  In  such  a  school  Lincoln  learned  to  revere  humanity,  truth 
and  God.  In  such  a  school  he  developed  a  gentle  soul,  a  giant 
stature  and  an  iron  will.  His  was  a  universal  sympathy  with  all 
human  aspiration.  Hate  found  no  lodgment  in  his  heart;  there 
kindness  and  mercy,  like  twin  Portias,  pleaded  always  against  the 
pound  of  flesh. 

These  elements  were  slowly  fusing  in  the  fires  of  experience 
and  ambition,  of  conflicts,  defeats,  successes,  for  almost  thirty 
years  from  the  date  of  his  first  announcement  for  office.  His 
single  term  in  Congress  was  marked  by  faithful  service  and  several 
comprehensive  speeches.  It  was  during  his  term  in  Congress  that 
he  wrote  a  letter  to  his  young  law  partner  containing  certain 
rules  of  conduct  which  every  young  man  ought  to  engrave  upon 
his  heart,  a  statement  comprising  a  sounder  and  more  healthful 
philosophy  than  any  similar  number  of  words  in  all  literature,  a 
statement  breathing  brotherhood  in  every  line:  "The  way  for  a 
young  man  to  rise  is  to  improve  himself  every  way  he  can,  never 
suspecting  that  anybody  wishes  to  hinder  him.  Allow  me  to  as- 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  MORRIS  SHEPPARD         283 

sure  you  that  suspicion  and  jealousy  never  did  help  any  man  in 
any  situation.  There  may  sometimes  be  ungenerous  attempts  to 
keep  a  young  man  down;  and  they  will  succeed,  too,  if  he  allows 
his  mind  to  be  diverted  from  its  true  channel  to  brood  over  the  at 
tempted  injury."  In  a  speech  a  few  years  before,  he  had  expressed 
another  phase  of  his  love  of  humanity  in  this  sentence:  "If  you 
would  win  a  man  to  your  cause  first  convince  him  that  you  are  his 
sincere  friend."  There  is  a  verse  from  Aleyn  which  elaborates 
this  beautiful  idea,  an  idea  so  illuminative  of  Lincoln's  soul : 

"The  fine  and  noble  way  to  kill  a  foe 
Is  not  to  kill  him ;  you  with  kindness  may 
So  change  him  that  he  shall  cease  to  be  so ; 
And  then  he's  slain.     Sigismund  used  to  say 
His  pardons  put  his  foes  to  death;  for  when 
He  mortify'd  their  hate  he  killed  them  then." 

In  his  speech  before  the  convention  which  nominated  him  for 
the  United  States  Senate  in  opposition  to  Douglas,  in  the  de 
bates  with  that  master  of  the  forum,  in  inaugural  addresses  and 
presidential  messages,  on  the  field  of  Gettysburg  and  elsewhere, 
Lincoln  gave  deliverances  that  in  chaste  and  lofty  eloquence,  in 
simplicity  and  power  stand  unsurpassed.  The  ideal  of  human 
brotherhood  was  with  him  ever  uppermost.  Toward  the  South  he 
exhibited  the  most  tolerant  and  affectionate  spirit.  In  his  speech 
at  Peoria  in  1854  he  said:  "Before  proceeding  let  me  say  I  think 
I  have  no  prejudice  against  the  Southern  people.  They  are  just 
what  we  would  be  in  their  situation.  If  slavery  did  not  exist 
among  them  they  would  not  introduce  it.  If  it  did  now  exist 
among  us  we  should  not  instantly  give  it  up.  When  Southern 
people  tell  us  they  are  no  more  responsible  for  the  origin  of  slavery 


284  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

than  we,  I  acknowledge  the  fact."    The  keynote  of  his  position 
was  opposition  to  the  extension  of  slavery. 

The  opening  of  the  American  Civil  War  made  him  the  chief 
figure  of  the  most  colossal  crisis  in  his  country's  life.  Every  ele 
ment  of  his  character  was  brought  into  instant  and  effective  play. 
It  is  difficult  to  appreciate  the  magnitude  of  the  task  he  met  and 
mastered.  His  was  the  responsible  supervision  of  all  civil  and 
military  administration.  The  young  party  he  had  led  to  victory 
was  naturally  filled  with  numerous  and  discordant  groups  all 
clamorous  for  recognition.  Every  phase  of  feeling  as  to  the  policy 
of  the  government  in  its  most  frightful  emergency  poured  a  stream 
of  argument  and  protest  across  his  audience  chamber.  To  har 
monize  the  clashing  sentiments  and  interests  required  superbest 
skill.  Relations  with  other  nations  demanded  the  coolest  and  most 
thorough  judgment.  He  rewrote  Seward's  dispatch  on  the  sub 
ject  of  England's  recognition  of  Southern  belligerency,  convert 
ing  that  violent  document,  which  would  most  probably  have  in 
cited  war,  into  a  model  of  diplomatic  propriety.  The  selection 
of  commanders  for  the  untried  millions  who  assembled  at  his  call 
involved  the  rarest  penetration.  Forbearance,  sympathy  and  keen 
est  insight  marked  his  treatment  of  the  generals  in  the  field.  He 
studied  the  art  of  war  and  demonstrated  military  talent  of  the 
highest  type.  His  orders  and  inquiries  showed  a  technical  famil 
iarity  with  all  the  problems  of  the  contest.  He  grasped  the  essen 
tial  features  of  the  proper  handling  of  the  Union  arms  and  re 
sources.  From  the  beginning  he  foreshadowed  the  course  of  the 
strife  with  such  accuracy  that  competent  authorities  have  pro 
nounced  him  one  of  the  ablest  strategists  of  that  world-astounding 
war.  Throughout  the  changing  fortunes  of  the  conflict  he  was 
the  same  serene,  unyielding,  all-compelling  force  that  welded 
every  controversy  and  every  defeat  into  final  and  overwhelming 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  MORRIS  SHEPPARD          285 

triumph.  The  fires  of  criticism  and  calumny  found  him  unresent- 
ing,  calm,  yet  undeterred.  Modest  himself  to  the  point  of  self- 
effacement,  he  held  himself  the  humblest  of  all  the  Presidents. 
On  his  second  election  to  the  Presidency  he  said  there  was  in  his 
gratitude  to  the  people  no  taint  of  personal  triumph  and  that  he 
felt  no  pleasure  in  succeeding  over  others.  He  exercised  the  pre 
rogative  of  pardon  with  tenderness  and  enthusiasm.  Mighty  as 
was  his  brain,  still  mightier  was  his  heart.  He  had  begun  a  hu 
mane  and  peaceful  reconstruction  of  several  States  before  he  died, 
and  had  he  lived,  the  nation's  wounds,  which  he  felt  were  also  his, 
would  have  far  more  quickly  healed.  The  knowledge  that  de 
spite  his  love  for  all  mankind  his  efforts  for  human  elevation  would 
be  distorted  and  assailed,  that  however  glorious  the  final  victory 
thousands  of  American  homes  were  being  desolated,  that  brother 
was  emptying  the  blood  of  brother,  and  the  premonition  that  he 
would  not  outlive  the  struggle,  wrapped  him  in  isolation  and  in 
sorrow  and  gave  his  features  an  infinite  sadness  in  repose. 

His  death  was  one  of  the  profoundest  calamities  that  ever 
shocked  the  earth.  To  his  noble  wife  he  remarked  as  the  clandes 
tine  assassin  was  about  to  fire,  "There  is  no  city  I  desire  so  much 
to  see  as  Jerusalem."  He  was  not  permitted  to  see  the  old  Jerusa 
lem,  but  in  a  few  hours  he  was  to  stand  among  the  glories  of  the 
new.  Now  what  is  the  relation  of  his  life  to  the  Republic  he 
aided  so  materially  to  preserve?  It  is  the  development  of  the 
idea  of  brotherhood  on  which  the  continued  preservation  of  this 
Union  depends.  What  lesson  emanates  from  his  spectral  figure 
as  it  rises  from  that  April  night  in  1865?  It  is  the  love  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  for  every  man,  woman  and  child  beneath  the 
American  flag.  Invoking  his  memory  I,  a  Southerner  and  a  Demo 
crat,  true  to  every  principle  that  animates  my  patriotic,  valorous 
and  incorruptible  people,  come  among  you  to-night,  Northerners 


286  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

and  Republicans,  equally  true  to  your  convictions,  as  fellow-coun 
tryman,  friend  and  brother.  New  York  is  my  country  as  well  as 
Texas.  Massachusetts,  California,  Illinois  are  as  dear  to  me  as 
Louisiana,  Georgia  or  Tennessee.  The  memory  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln  is  one  of  the  fundamental  buttresses  of  the  reunited  and  un 
conquerable  America  of  the  twentieth  century.  In  fulfillment  of 
his  desires  and  dreams  the  American  people  are  to-day  a  mighty 
and  a  deathless  brotherhood.  Forgotten  are  the  discords  of  the 
past;  departed  are  the  specters  of  civil  strife.  Near  Columbus, 
Ohio,  was  situated  Camp  Chase,  one  of  the  military  prisons  of  the 
North  during  the  Civil  War.  There  thousands  of  Southern  sol 
diers  died,  far  from  the  land  of  their  birth  and  love.  But  their 
graves  have  received  the  tenderest  care  from  Northern  hearts  and 
hands,  and  an  arch  has  been  erected  on  that  solemn  spot  bearing 
the  word  "Americans."  This  word  expresses  the  spirit  of  pa 
triotism  that  to-day  uplifts  and  thrills  the  nation,  the  spirit  in 
which  Lincoln  moved  and  spoke  and  prayed.  It  hallows  the 
past,  it  inspires  the  present,  and  0,  may  it  animate  the  endless 
reaches  of  the  future !  It  arouses  love  for  every  part  of  our  com 
mon  country,  for  every  city  and  every  state,  every  mountain  and 
every  shore,  every  forest  and  every  plain — love  for  our  traditions 
and  our  history,  love  for  the  home  of  freedom,  the  hope  of  lib 
erty,  the  light  of  time,  the  radiance  of  the  ages,  our  own  United 
States. 

The  poet  sings  of  Sunny  France, 
Fair  olive-laden  Spain, 
The  Grecian  Isles,  Italia's  smiles, 
And  India's  torrid  flame, 
Of  Egypt's  countless  ages  old, 
Dark  Af ric's  palms  and  dates ; 
Let  me  acclaim  the  land  I  name, 
My  own  United  States. 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  MORRIS  SHEPPARD         287 

The  poet  sings  of  Switzerland, 
Braw  Scotland's  heathered  moor, 
The  shimmering  sheen  of  Ireland's  green, 
Old  England's  rockbound  shore, 
Quaint  Holland  and  the  fatherland, 
Their  charms  in  verse  relates, 
Let  me  acclaim  the  land  I  name, 
My  own  United  States. 

I  love  every  inch  of  her  prairie  land, 
Each  stone  on  her  mountains'  side, 
I  love  every  drop  of  the  water  clear 
That  flows  in  her  rivers  wide ; 
I  love  every  tree,  every  blade  of  grass, 
Within  Columbia's  gates, 
The  queen  of  the  earth  is  the  land  of  my  birth, 
My  own  United  States. 


THE  TWENTY-SECOND 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1908 


Address  of 
HON.  CHARLES  E.  HUGHES 


CHARLES  EVANS  HUGHES,  A.M.,  LL.D. 

Governor  Hughes  was  born  in  Glens  Falls,  N.  Y.,  1862. 
He  graduated  from  Brown  University,  1881,  and  from  the 
Columbia  Law  School,  1884.  From  1884-91  he  prac 
tised  law  in  New  York  City;  from  1891-3  was  Pro 
fessor  of  Law  at  the  Cornell  University  School  of  Law, 
afterwards  returning  to  active  practice.  He  first  came 
into  national  prominence  as  attorney  for  the  Armstrong 
Commission  of  the  New  York  Legislature  for  the  in 
vestigation  of  insurance  company  methods.  In  1906  he 
was  elected  Governor  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and 
upon  the  expiration  of  his  term  was  re-elected. 


ADDRESS  OF 

GOVERNOR   HUGHES 


Mr.  President,  Gentlemen  of  the  Republican  Club  and  Ladies: 
The  exigencies  of  the  gubernatorial  office  have  not  given  nie  oppor 
tunity  to  prepare  any  address  which  would  be  worthy  of  the 
traditions  of  this  anniversary,  and  I  appear  before  you  without 
any  set  speech.  I  am  very  glad  indeed  of  the  opportunity  of  wel 
coming  to  the  State  of  New  York  the  Governor  of  our  sister  state, 
Kentucky;  and  I  envy  you  the  pleasure  that  you  will  have  in  lis 
tening  to  those  who  will  adequately  present  the  memories  of  this 
occasion.  But,  my  friends,  from  a  boy  I  have  been  full  of  Lincoln. 
There  is  no  day  in  the  year  that  is  so  eloquent  to  me  as  the  day  in 
which  we  commemorate  his  birth. 

It  is  true  that  on  that  day  of  all  days  when  we  celebrate  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  the  American  heart  is  warm  with 
the  sentiments  of  liberty  and  of  free  opportunity  and  of  hearty  rec 
ognition  of  equality.  It  is  also  true  that  on  the  day  when  we 
celebrate  the  birth  of  the  Father  of  his  Country  we  render  loyal 
tribute  to  the  distinguished  services  of  a  man  who,  against  odds 
which  we  can  little  appreciate,  battled  for  the  independence  which 
was  so  nobly  declared ;  and  we  feel  richer  in  our  manhood  because 
we  were  introduced  to  the  family  of  nations  by  one  who  so  worth 
ily  represented  the  best  that  humanity  has  offered. 

But  there  is  one  man  who  presents  to  the  American  people 
above  all  others  in  his  niany-sided  greatness  the  type,  the  repre- 


292  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

sentative  of  those  qualities  which  distinguish  American  character 
and  make  possible  the  maintenance  of  our  national  strength.  And 
in  Abraham  Lincoln  we  recognize  not  simply  one  who  gave  his  lift 
for  his  country  and  rendered  the  most  important  service  that  any 
man  could  render  in  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  but  one  who 
seemed  to  have  centered  in  himself  those  many  attributes  which 
we  recognize  as  the  sources  of  our  national  power.  He  is,  par  ex 
cellence,  the  true  American,  Abraham  Lincoln. 

I  wish  in  our  colleges  and  wherever  young  men  are  trained, 
particularly  for  political  life,  that  there  could  be  a  course  in  Lin 
coln.  I  wish  our  young  men  could  be  taken  through  the  long 
efforts  of  his  career;  I  wish  they  could  become  more  intimately  ac 
quainted  with  the  addresses  he  delivered;  I  wish  that  they  could 
get  in  closer  touch  with  that  remarkable  personality;  and  they 
would  never  find  it  possible  to  take  a  low  or  sordid  view  of 
American  opportunity. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  an  acute  man.  But  we  erect  no  monu 
ments  to  shrewdness.  We  have  no  memorials  by  which  we  desire 
to  perpetuate  the  records  of  American  smartness.  Skill  in  manipu 
lation,  acuteness  in  dealing  for  selfish  purposes,  may  win  their  tem 
porary  victories,  but  the  acuteness  that  the  American  people  ad 
mire  is  that  acuteness  which  is  devoted  to  the  solution  of  problems 
affecting  their  prosperity  and  directly  related  to  their  interests, 
and  which  is  employed  unselfishly  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  peo 
ple,  apart  from  any  individual  interest. 

I  have  long  been  a  student  of  Lincoln.  I  have  marveled  at  the 
ability  which  he  displayed.  There  has  been  no  greater  exponent 
of  that  sharpness  of  intellect  which  so  pre-eminently  characterizes 
the  American.  But  Abraham  Lincoln  devoted  all  his  talents, 
his  extraordinary  perspicacity  to  the  welfare  of  the  people.  He 
was  a  man  of  principle.  He  was  a  man  all  of  whose  acts  were 


ADDRESS  OF  GOVERNOR  HUGHES  293 

founded  upon  a  recognition  of  the  fundamental  principles  which 
underlie  our  Republic.  Said  he  on  one  occasion,  "I  have  no  senti 
ments  except  those  which  I  have  derived  from  a  study  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence."  He  was  profoundly  an  apostle  of 
liberty.  I  have  said  that  he  was  a  man  of  principle.  Rarely  has 
the  doctrine  of  the  relation  to  the  nation,  to  the  states,  and  of  gov 
ernment  to  the  individual  been  more  lucidly  expounded  than  he 
expounded  it  in  those  sentences  which  probably  are  familiar  to 
you  all.  He  said,  "The  nation  must  control  whatever  concerns 
the  nation.  The  states,  or  any  minor  political  community,  must 
control  whatever  exclusively  concerns  it.  That  is  real  popular 
sovereignty."  And  in  that  he  said  it  all. 

He  was  an  expert  logician.  He  brought  to  bear  upon  his  oppo 
nents  the  batteries  of  remorseless  logic.  He  had  a  profound  confi 
dence  in  the  reasoning  judgment  of  the  American  people.  He  dis 
dained  all  efforts  to  capture  the  populace  by  other  means.  There 
is  nothing  more  illuminating  than  his  conduct  of  that  great  cam 
paign  against  Douglas  in  1858.  He  developed  his  line  of  attack 
in  a  question.  He  brought  to  bear  upon  his  opponent  an  extra 
ordinary  ability  of  analysis.  He  eviscerated  the  subject  of  dis 
cussion  and  he  presented  the  whole  matter  that  was  then  before 
the  great  American  nation  in  its  bare  bones  on  a  perfectly  cool 
and  logical  consideration ;  and,  while  he  lost  the  campaign  for  the 
senatorship,  he  made  himself  the  apostle  of  thinking  America  in 
its  opposition  to  the  extension  of  slavery.  He  had  one  foundation 
principle,  and  that  was  this:  "Slavery,"  he  said,  "is  wrong.  It 
may  be  recognized  where  it  constitutionally  exists,  but  shall  it  be 
extended?"  And  to  every  proposition  that  was  presented  by  his 
skilful  and  adroit  opponent  he  presented  not  abuse,  not  any  appeal 
to  the  emotions  of  the  multitude,  but  cogent  reasoning,  from  which 
none  could  escape,  and  while  he  lost  the  senatorship,  he  appeared 


294  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

before  the  American  people  as  representing  their  ideal  of  straight 
forward,  honest  representation  of  the  truth  applicable  to  their 
crisis,  and  received  the  highest  honors  within  their  gift. 

There  never  has  been  an  illustration,  I  venture  to  say,  within 
the  memory  of  man  where  intellect  has  exerted  so  potent  a  mag 
netism,  where  loyalty  has  been  commended  simply  because  reason 
and  early  training;  and  therein  there  is  no  man  who  walks  in  any 
station  of  life  in  any  part  of  the  country  but  can  call  Lincoln 
his  brother,  his  friend,  a  man  of  like  passions  and  like  experiences 
with  himself.  We  recognize  some  men  for  the  services  that  they 
have  rendered.  They  have  deserved  well  of  their  country.  We 
recognize  Lincoln  for  his  service.  No  one  has  deserved  better  of 
his  country.  He  rendered  a  service  which  cannot  be  eulogized 
in  extravagant  terms;  but  we  forget  anything  that  Lincoln  ever 
did  or  anything  that  Lincoln  ever  said  in  the  recognition  of  the 
great  manhood  that  was  his,  which  transcended  anything  he  did 
because  of  what  he  was.  I  have  said  that  he  was  a  man  of  prin 
ciple;  and  so  he  was.  But  he  was  a  progressive  man;  he  was 
sensitive  to  the  demands  of  his  day.  Three  or  four  years — three 
years,  I  believe  it  was,  after  the  outbreak  of  the  war  he  said,  "I 
have  not  controlled  events,  and  I  confess  events  have  controlled 
me,  and  after  three  years  we  find  ourselves  in  a  situation  which 
neither  party  and  no  man  devised  or  expected."  He  was  a  man 
who  met  each  demand  as  it  arose — to  the  radicals  he  was  too 
conservative;  to  the  conservatives  lie  was  too  radical.  Few  in 
the  community  praised  him  during  his  life.  Probably  no  man  in 
the  whole  history  of  the  Republic  was  ever  so  severely  criticised 
and  so  mercilessly  lampooned  in  the  dark  days  of  1864;  after  three 
years  of  trouble  he  had  sustained  a  burden  which  would  have 
broken  down  an  ordinary  man.  He  said  in  August  of  that  year 
that  it  seemed  there  were  no  friends ;  and  he  looked  forward  to  the 


ADDRESS  OF  GOVERNOR  HUGHES  295 

next  election  as  almost  certain  to  go  against  the  party  which  he 
represented. 

Without  sacrilege  I  may  say  he  was  "A  man  of  sorrows  and 
acquainted  with  grief."  And,  frequently  alone,  without  the  sus 
taining  encouragement  of  even  those  who  were  close  to  him  in 
his  official  family,  he  endeavored  to  exercise  that  judgment  which 
history  commends  and  that  extraordinary  talent  for  analyzing  diffi 
cult  situations  which  is  the  marvel  of  our  later  day. 

My  friends,  Lincoln  represents  what  the  American  Republic  is 
capable  of  and  in  one  personality  typifies  what  we  have  accom 
plished  and  for  what  we  can  reasonably  hope. 

He  was  a  humane  man,  a  man  of  emotion,  which  he  never  al 
lowed  to  control  his  reason;  a  man  of  sentiment  and  deep  feeling. 
He  was  a  lowly  man  who  never  asserted  himself  as  superior  to  his 
fellows,  but  he  could  rise  in  the  dignity  of  his  manhood  to  a  ma 
jesty  that  has  seldom  been  equalled  by  any  ruler  of  any  people 
under  any  form  of  government.  When  Lee  sent  to  Grant  and  sug 
gested  that  there  might  be  some  talk  with  regard  to  the  disposition 
that  might  be  made  of  public  affairs  in  the  interest  of  peace,  and 
Grant  forwarded  the  communication,  or  the  substance  of  it,  to  the 
President,  the  President,  without  a  moment's  hesitation  or  without 
consultation  with  anyone,  said,  in  effect:  "You  shall  confine  your 
communications  with  General  Lee  to  the  matter  of  capitulation, 
or  to  minor  or  military  subjects.  You  shall  not  discuss  with  him 
any  political  affairs.  The  President  reserves  to  himself  the  con 
trol  of  those  questions  and  will  not  submit  them  to  any  military 
convention."  It  was  not  an  assertion  of  any  superiority  which 
he  felt  above  his  brother  man.  It  was  simply  the  realization  of 
the  dignity  of  his  office  and  its  responsibility  in  a  supreme  crisis, 
and  the  willingness  to  assume  that  responsibility  before  the 


296  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

American  people  with  that  innate  confidence  of  which  his  su 
preme  intellect  could  never  deprive  him. 

My  friends,  we  see  in  Lincoln  patience,  the  reasoning  faculty, 
humanity,  the  democratic  sentiment,  patient  consideration,  all 
combined,  and  we  may  well  learn  from  him  the  lessons  which  at 
every  hour  of  our  history  we  should  well  study.  There  may  be 
those  who  look  with  uncertainty  upon  our  future,  who  feel  op 
pressed  by  the  problems  of  the  day.  I  am  not  one  of  them. 

"Why,"  said  Lincoln,  "should  we  not  have  patient  confidence 
in  the  ultimate  justice  of  the  American  people?" 

Why  not,  indeed?  Who  are  the  American  people?  They  are 
the  most  intelligent  people  organized  into  any  civil  society  on  the 
face  of  this  broad  earth.  They  have  abundant  opportunities  for 
education.  They  are  keen  and  alert.  They  are  those  whom  you 
meet  in  every  walk  of  life.  Their  common  sense  is  of  general 
recognition  among  all  the  peoples  of  the  world.  Why  not  have 
patient  confidence  in  the  ultimate  justice  of  the  American  peo 
ple?  If  we  can  only  feel  as  Lincoln  felt  and  derive  our  political 
sentiments  from  a  study  of  the  principles  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  and  proceed  as  Lincoln  did,  with  remorseless  logic, 
to  the  consideration  of  the  demands  of  every  exigency,  there  can 
be  no  question  but  that  each  problem  will  be  solved,  and  that 
every  decade  of  American  history  will  witness  a  fresh  advance, 
and  that  the  prosperity  of  the  future  will  far  transcend  anything 
that  we  have  realized  in  the  past. 

Undoubtedly  abuses  exist;  undoubtedly  abuses  must  be  cured. 
If  there  is  any  man  who  thinks,  or  any  set  of  men  who  think  that 
by  any  astuteness  they  may  stand  in  the  way  of  progress,  and  may 
prevent  the  correction  of  evils  that  exist,  let  them  beware;  they 
will  find  themselves  impotent.  Progress  will  take  no  account  of 


ADDRESS  OF  GOVERNOR  HUGHES  297 

them.  The  American  people  will  advance  step  by  step  surely  and 
inevitably  to  a  realization  of  their  ideals,  and  nothing  whatever 
will  stand  in  the  way  in  the  course  of  time  of  that  equality  of 
opportunity  and  of  equal  rights  before  the  law  which  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence  announces,  and  which  the  Constitution  was 
intended  to  conserve. 

What  we  need  to-day  is  a  definition  of  evils.  What  we  need 
to-day  is  a  delimiting  of  abuses,  and  let  the  whole  power  and 
strength  of  the  Republic,  as  represented  by  those  who  are  natu 
rally  its  leaders,  be  devoted  to  the  careful  and  calm  considera 
tion  of  remedies  in  order  that  we  may  save  our  prosperity,  and  at 
the  same  time  render  every  condition  which  threatens  us  impotent 
and  powerless,  because  the  will  of  the  people,  in  the  interest 
of  the  people,  the  deliberate  expression  of  the  popular  judgment, 
must  in  this  country  at  all  times  be  supreme.  There  is  plenty  of 
coal  on  board ;  every  man  is  at  his  post ;  steam  is  up,  and  the  only 
question  is  as  to  the  direction,  and  to  avoid  the  sandbars  and  the 
shoals.  It  is  a  question  of  the  selection  of  the  right  course.  I 
believe  most  thoroughly  in  the  judgment  of  the  American  people. 
Every  man  in  this  country  worthy  of  his  citizenship  desires  to 
work.  He  desires  to  get  a  fair  opportunity  to  show  what  is  in 
him.  He  desires  to  have  the  advantages  which  from  boyhood 
he  has  been  taught  that  this  American  Republic  affords.  He  de 
sires  to  have  hurdles  and  obstacles  which  may  have  been  put  in 
his  way  by  special  privilege  or  by  a  perversion  of  government  re 
moved.  He  desires  to  have  no  disadvantage  created  by  any  ill- 
considered  interference  with  governmental  relations.  But  on  the 
other  hand,  he  intends  to  have  the  fullest  advantage  and  oppor 
tunity  for  the  exercise  of  his  individual  power,  with  recognition 
of  the  equal  right  of  every  other  man  to  the  exercise  of  his  in- 


298  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

dividual  power;  so  that  all  may  be  prosperous  and  all  may  succeed; 
and  all  that  we  need  is  to  put  a  stop  to  those  things  which  are 
inimical  to  our  common  advantage,  and  insist  upon  our  common 
rights,  and  reason  together  in  regard  to  what  is  fair  and  what  is 
just,  and  accomplish  things  with  full  ascertainment  of  the  facts 
because  they  are  right  and  because  the  people,  in  their  deliberate 
judgment,  demand  that  they  should  be  accomplished.  We  are  all 
fortunate  that  we  have  had  a  Lincoln.  What  would  the  country  be 
if  we  were  all  a  lot  of  sordid  money-grabbers  with  nothing  to  point 
to  but  the  particular  sharpness  of  A,  or  the  special  success,  in 
some  petty  manipulation,  of  B?  What  a  grand  thing  it  is  that 
we  have  the  inheritance  of  the  memory  of  a  man  who  had  every 
thing  which  we  could  aspire  to  in  intellectual  attainments,  who 
was  endowed  with  a  strength  of  moral  purpose,  who  was  perfectly 
sincere  in  the  interest  of  the  people,  and  who  gave  his  life  work 
and  eventually  his  life  itself  in  order  that  our  Union,  with  its  op 
portunities,  might  survive. 

I  am  proud,  my  friends,  to  have  had  an  opportunity  to  study 
Lincoln's  life.  If  any  of  you  have  failed  to  take  advantage  of 
that  opportunity  do  not  let  another  year  go  by  without  making  a 
thorough  study  of  that  career.  It  is  an  epitome  of  Americanism. 
It  will  realize  all  that  you  have  dreamed  of  and  all  that  you  can 
possibly  imagine.  It  is  simply  a  representation  of  a  man  upon 
whose  brow  God  has  written  a  line  of  superiority,  who  never  ar 
rogated  it  to  himself  except  in  his  great  function  of  discharging 
the  highest  office  of  government.  Defeated  again  and  again,  fail 
ing  to  realize  the  ambition  that  was  nearest  to  him,  again  and 
again  he  arose  by  sheer  force  of  intellect  and  character  until  he 
came  to  the  point  where  a  Nation's  burden  was  put  upon  him, 
and  he  carried  it  so  nobly  that  forever  he  will  be  to  us  the  na 
tion's  representative,  the  typical  American. 


THE  TWENTY-THIRD 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 

City  of  New  York 
FEBRUARY  12,  1909 


Address  of 
HON.  THEODORE  E.  BURTON 


THEODORE  E.  BURTON. 

Congressman  Burton  was  born  in  Jefferson,  0.,  1851. 
He  graduated  from  Oberlin  College,  and  was  ad 
mitted  to  the  Bar  in  1875,  since  which  time  he  has  been 
in  active  practice  in  Cleveland.  Member  of  Congress  for 
the  Twenty-first  Ohio  District,  1889-91  and  1895-1909. 
He  is  the  author  of  several  books  and  Chairman  of  the 
Inland  Waterways  Commission. 


ADDRESS  OF 

HON.  THEODORE   E.  BURTON 


Mr.  President,  Members  of  the  Republican  Club  of  the  City  of 
New  York,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  On  this  twelfth  day  of  Febru 
ary,  1909,  nearly  one  thousand  meetings  have  been  held  in  the 
city  of  New  York  to  celebrate  this  anniversary.  The  attendance 
upon  those  meetings  has  probably  been  larger  than  upon  any  oc 
casion  in  any  city  for  the  praise  or  honor  of  any  human  being, 
living  or  dead.  There  have  been  no  ceremonial  processions,  as  to 
a  coronation,  no  military  parade  to  attract  the  multitude.  It  has 
been  simply  the  plain  but  impressive  tribute  of  the  people  to  the 
memory  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Surely  this  gives  reason  for  a  note  of  optimism.  We  cannot 
be  so  deficient  in  civic  virtue  as  some  of  our  critics  at  home  and 
abroad  would  have  us  be.  To-day  the  exchanges  have  been  closed, 
business  suspended  and  patriotism  given  the  right  of  way.  Love 
of  our  country  and  of  the  great  men  who  have  exalted  her  is  not 
dead;  it  is  not  even  sleeping!  Prosperity  has  not  separated  us 
from  patriotism,  and  the  men  who  have  upon  them  the  garb  of 
business  could  change  their  garments  and  readily  assume  the  uni 
form  of  war.  So  let  us  be  confident  for  the  future.  Let  us  be 
lieve  that  if  he  whose  name  we  commemorate  to-day  were  to  look 
upon  us  from  the  unseen  world  and  were  to  speak  to  us  he  would 
say,  "Enjoy,  children  of  the  twentieth  century,  the  abundance 
which  is  given  to  your  country,  but  always  let  your  hearts  and 


THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 


your  hands  go  out  to  her  people,  to  the  poor  and  lowly,  whom  I 
loved,  the  black  as  well  as  the  white." 

One  hundred  years  ago  Abraham  Lincoln  was  born.  No  pains 
taking  chronicler  has  given  us  the  hour  of  the  day,  whether  it 
were  morning  or  evening;  but  we  are  told  that  the  rude  cabin 
was  so  poor  that  there  was  no  cradle,  nor  even  a  manger,  to  re 
ceive  the  infant.  The  habitation  was  well-nigh  as  barren  as  the 
abodes  of  the  very  foxes  and  bears  that  roamed  the  woods.  But 
if  any  discerning  spirit  could  have  pierced  the  veil  which  con 
ceals  the  future,  he  might  well  have  exclaimed,  in  the  language 
of  Macbeth  when  frightened  at  the  apparition: 

"What  is  this 

That  rises  like  the  issue  of  a  king, 
And  wears  upon  his  baby  brow  the  round 
And  top  of  sovereignty?" 

For  where  is  the  emperor  or  king  who  has  done  so  much  for  the 
progress  of  the  human  race? 

A  hundred  years  creates  a  broad  span  in  the  world's  history  in 
any  age,  but  the  changes  of  the  century  since  Lincoln  was  born 
have  an  importance  in  the  world's  advance  surpassing  that  of  all 
the  cycles  of  Cathay.  It  is  unnecessary  to  dwell  upon  all  the 
marvels  of  invention,  the  progress  of  peace  and  the  growth  of 
popular  government.  Moreover,  previous  to  the  year  1815  the  pre 
dominant  condition  among  the  nations  was  one  of  war,  while  since 
then  the  prevailing  situation  has  been  one  of  peace,  and  con 
structive  forces  have  been  powerfully  at  work.  And  who  in  all 
this  period  will  gain  such  immortality  as  he  whose  birthday  we 
are  now  observing?  In  studying  the  careers  of  men  who  have 
marked  off  milestones  in  the  forward  march  of  humanity  we 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  THEODORE  E.  BURTON        303 

must  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  only  when  qualities  of  the 
heart  have  been  joined  to  those  of  the  head  that  the  greatest  re 
sults  have  been  gained.  In  no  man  of  any  age  has  there  been  a 
more  superb  combination  of  greatness  of  intellect  with  greatness  of 
heart  and  of  will  than  in  him. 

Lincoln's  influence  has  not  been  and  will  not  be  confined  to  any 
one  country  or  clime.  It  was  the  mightiest  factor  in  the  estab 
lishment  of  great  political  principles  now  gaining  the  ascendancy 
almost  everywhere.  Yet  the  memory  of  his  deeds  will  exert  its 
most  beneficent  influence  for  all  the  weak  and  the  struggling  who 
lift  their  faces  heavenward  the  world  over.  It  may  be  super 
fluous  to  touch  again  upon  the  disheartening  surroundings  of  his 
youth,  the  poverty  and  squalor  which  rested  so  heavily  upon  him, 
and  yet  his  rise  to  the  most  lofty  official  position  on  the  globe  af 
fords  a  most  inspiring  illustration  of  the  possibilities  in  this  free 
land  of  ours. 

That  to  which  I  wish  to  call  especial  attention  in  the  life  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  is  that  he  was  the  embodiment — it  may  be  said 
the  incarnation — of  the  people.  Lacking  in  his  youth  the  life  of 
partial  seclusion  which  belongs  to  educated  men,  who  are  trained 
in  colleges  or  universities,  he  possessed  a  compensating  advantage 
arising  from  his  constant  contact  with  the  people,  and  with  neigh 
bors  and  kindred  of  the  less  favored  ranks  of  society,  whose  daily 
struggle  was  for  the  simple  necessities  of  life.  Thus  he  came  to 
understand  the  emotions,  the  thoughts,  the  aspirations  of  the  lowly, 
and  could  interpret  with  unerring  instinct  those  currents  of  pop 
ular  feeling  with  which  every  public  man  who  expects  to  succeed 
must  gain  familiarity.  He  was  no  visionary  idealist,  for  he  was 
peculiarly  well  informed  upon  all  that  interests  the  mass  of  our 
citizens  or  guides  the  public  opinion  of  the  nation.  He  did  not 
need  to  listen  for  the  voices  of  the  time,  or  as  it  is  expressed  in 


3o4  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

modern  parlance  to  keep  his  ear  to  the  ground.  He  knew  the 
people — he  was  one  of  them,  and  had  lived  in  such  close  associa 
tion  with  them  that  he  could  not  go  astray  in  judging  what  they 
would  accept  or  support. 

In  every  political  organization  there  must  be  some  force  which 
holds  the  ultimate  power.  In  a  military  despotism  it  is  a  stand 
ing  army;  in  an  absolute  monarchy  it  is  the  influence  of  the  court 
and  those  surrounding  it.  But  in  a  well-ordered  republic,  such 
as  America,  the  despotism  of  public  opinion  holds  sway.  Without 
a  favoring  public  opinion  great  reforms  cannot  be  accomplished. 
Lincoln  realized  that  it  was  best  to  depend  upon  the  convictions 
of  the  people?  and  to  appeal  to  their  conscience  and  their  judg 
ment,  rather  than  to  seek  to  exercise  an  overbearing  influence. 
These  forces  upon  which  he  relied  were  stronger  than  the  armies 
of  potentates,  and  his  rule  was  more  powerful  than  that  of  the 
most  absolute  monarch.  There  have  been  other  men  who  were 
of  a  more  dominant  character,  and  on  the  other  hand  there  have 
been  those  high — yes,  highest — in  authority  who  were  more  dis 
posed  to  give  consideration  to  the  thoughts  and  sentiments  of  the 
time ;  but  for  a  combination  of  both  these  qualities  Lincoln  stands 
forth  transcendent. 

Nor  was  he  a  servile  follower  of  the  dictates  of  the  majority. 
Indeed  he  was  matchless  as  a  leader,  possessing  in  the  highest 
degree  the  ability  to  conciliate  men  to  his  measures,  as  well  as  to 
adapt  his  course  of  action  to  time  and  surroundings.  He  lived 
in  a  time  of  upheaval,  when  party  lines  were  being  dissolved  and 
old  things  were  giving  way  to  new — in  brief,  he  lived  in  the 
midst  of  a  revolution.  We  had  maintained  an  army  of,  say,  25>000 
men,  and  were  called  upon  to  increase  it  by  more  than  2,000,000 
enlistments.  We  had  enjoyed  peace,  and  had  become  inured  to 
quietness,  when  all  at  once  the  country  was  plunged  into  terrible 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  THEODORE  E.  BURTON        305 

war.  There  sprang  up  the  widest  and  most  bitter  differences  of 
opinion  as  to  what  steps  should  be  taken.  With  what  a  masterful 
hand,  with  what  a  marvelous  gift  in  the  choice  of  means  and  fit  oc 
casions,  did  he  harmonize  all  these  divergent  factions,  and  bring 
together,  as  in  one  mighty  force,  all  those  who  sought  to  save  the 
TTnion!  He  was  never  premature,  nor  yet  too  late,  in  the  taking 
of  any  great  step.  For  example,  when  generals  in  the  field  had 
declared  the  slaves  in  their  localities  to  be  free  he  revoked  their 
orders.  Yet  later,  when  the  time  was  ripe,  he  issued  the  Emanci 
pation  Proclamation  at  the  opportune  moment,  and  opposition  faded 
away  in  recognition  of  the  timeliness  of  the  measure.  Thus  we 
can  aptly  compare  him  to  a  mighty  river  which  in  its  course  meets 
many  rocks  and  obstacles,  and  encounters  sharp  turns,  but  as  each 
obstruction  is  reached,  gracefully  parts  its  waters  without  turbu 
lence  or  hindrance  and  leaving  not  one  drop  behind,  flows  majes 
tically  onward  with  ever  increasing  volume  to  the  ocean. 

In  order  that  the  course  of  a  nation's  life  may  be  changed  by 
any  single  individual  there  must  be  first  a  great  occasion,  and 
next  a  man  predestined  by  his  qualities  to  meet  it.  Some  great 
problem  in  which  the  line  between  right  and  wrong  can  be  clearly 
drawn  must  demand  solution.  This  occasion  existed  in  1861  in 
the  call  to  resist  the  aggressions  of  slavery.  The  nation's  con 
science  was  becoming  awakened,  and  this  frightful  crime  was  be 
ginning  to  appear  to  all  in  its  true  light.  In  the  second  place, 
the  time  had  come  when  there  must  be  a  settlement  of  the  all- 
important  question  of  the  relations  between  the  central  govern 
ment  and  the  different  units  which  make  it  up.  A  growing  spirit 
of  nationality  had  rendered  it  imperative  that  the  vagueness  and 
the  compromises  of  the  early  days  should  be  cleared  away.  To 
grapple  with  these  momentous  difficulties  there  was  required  a 
leader  endowed  with  clearness  of  insight,  capacity  for  present- 


3o6  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

ing  unanswerable  arguments  for  the  policies  he  advocated,  and  a 
mind  and  heart  which  should  assure  for  him  popular  confidence. 
And  all  these  requisites  Abraham  Lincoln  possessed  in  a  fullness 
which  made  him  supreme  as  the  man  of  the  hour. 

With  mighty  grasp  he  comprehended  his  country's  needs  more 
clearly  than  any  other  statesman,  and  was  able  to  distinguish  the 
proper  remedies  and  frame  the  wisest  plans  for  the  relief  of  exist 
ing  conditions.  More  courageously  and  distinctly  than  any  other 
man  of  the  time  he  pointed  out  the  irrepressible  conflict  between 
freedom  and  slavery.  Unequalled  in  the  keenness  of  his  rea 
soning  and  the  cogency  with  which  he  could  state  the  grounds  of 
his  beliefs,  he  added  to  his  logical  faculty  an  aptitude  in  illustra 
tion  which  enabled  him  to  make  his  arguments  clear  even  to 
the  humblest  man. 

Senator  Ingalls  once  told  me  that  in  the  year  1859  Mr.  Lincoln 
had  addressed  a  meeting  out  in  Kansas.  The  Senator  was  a  mem 
ber  of  the  entertainment  committee,  and  on  the  following  morning 
he  went  around  to  the  little  hotel  and  found  Mr.  Lincoln,  with  a 
great  pair  of  old  style  rubbers  on,  warming  his  feet  by  the  stove 
and  entertaining  a  number  of  stage  drivers  with  very  interest 
ing  stories.  It  has  been  said  that  occasionally  his  stories  were 
not  of  the  most  refined  character.  It  is  unfortunate  sometimes  to 
have  a  good  memory.  But  Mr.  Lincoln's  anecdotes  were  like  the 
fables  of  -ZEsop — not  the  language  of  a  jester,  but  told  to  make 
clear  to  simpler  minds  complex  and  difficult  problems,  and,  besides, 
in  order  to  relieve  the  dreadful  tensity  of  the  times.  With  the 
accounts  of  slaughter  morning  and  evening,  and  with  the  great 
strain  which  rested  upon  him  in  Washington,  there  was  need  of 
some  means  of  keeping  his  heart  from  being  overborne  and  his 
will  from  bending.  Twenty-five  years  ago  this  very  evening  I  re 
member  having  heard  from  Mr.  John  Hay,  afterwards  Secretary 


ADDRESS  OF  EON.  THEODORE  E.  BURTON        307 

of  State,  a  story  of  Lincoln's  which  shows  the  latter's  wonderful 
facility  in  illustrating  the  salient  points  of  a  situation.  When 
Colonel  Hay  was  private  secretary  at  the  White  House  he  had  in 
structions  not  to  wake  the  President  unless  something  of  extreme 
importance  was  to  he  communicated.  One  night  a  dispatch  came 
from  General  Burnside  from  Knoxville,  Tennessee,  to  the  effect 
that  defeat  and  surrender  were  practically  upon  him,  and  deem 
ing  this  sufficiently  urgent,  Mr.  Hay  went  upstairs  and  roused  Mr. 
Lincoln  with  the  information.  After  yawning  a  little,  Lincoln 
said,  "I  am  glad  of  it;  I  am  glad  to  hear  it."  "But,  Mr.  Presi 
dent,  that  does  not  seem  an  item  of  news  to  be  glad  of."  "Well," 
said  Lincoln,  "it  reminds  me  of  a  poor  woman  I  used  to  know  out 
in  Menard  County."  (His  illustrations  usually  came  from  Menard 
or  Sangamon  or  Logan  or  other  counties  in  that  vicinity.)  "She 
had  a  large  brood  of  children.  They  wandered  through  the  woods, 
and  it  was  impossible  for  her  to  clothe  them  properly — she  could 
hardly  feed  them.  The  woman  always  used  to  say  that  it  did  her 
heart  good  whenever  any  of  those  young  ones  came  around 
squalling,  because  then  she  knew  he  was  still  alive,  while  other 
wise  she  might  not  know  but  that  he  was  dead."  I  think  no  ex 
planation  is  needed  to  show  how  perfectly  this  applied  to  the 
situation. 

After  the  battle  of  Malvern  Hill  Lincoln  was  approached  by  a 
prominent  Senator  with  a  very  dejected  bearing,  and  the  Presi 
dent  said,  "Why,  Senator,  you  have  a  very  sad  face  to-day.  It  re 
minds  me  of  a  little  incident."  The  distinguished  caller  took  it 
upon  himself  to  rebuke  Lincoln,  saying,  "Mr.  President,  this  sit 
uation  is  too  grave  for  the  telling  of  anecdotes.  I  do  not  care  to 
listen  to  one."  Mr.  Lincoln  was  aroused  by  this  remark  and  re 
plied,  "Senator,  do  you  think  that  this  situation  weighs  more 
heavily  upon  you  than  it  does  upon  me?  If  the  cause  goes  against 


3o8  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

us,  not  only  will  the  country  be  lost,  but  I  shall  be  disgraced 
to  all  time.  But  what  would  happen  if  I  appeared  upon  the 
streets  of  Washington  to-day  with  such  a  countenance  as  yours? 
The  news  would  be  spread  throughout  the  country  that  the  Pres 
ident's  very  demeanor  is  an  admission  that  defeat  is  inevitable. 
And  I  say  to  you,  sir,  that  it  would  be  better  for  you  to  infuse 
some  cheerfulness  into  that  countenance  of  yours  as  you  go  about 
upon  the  streets  of  Washington."  A  man  who  was  witness  of  this 
conversation  is  still  living. 

And  we  may  dismiss  the  idea  that  Lincoln  was  gross  in  his 
stories.  He  may  have  related  some  anecdotes  which  did  not  rise 
to  the  highest  degree  of  dignity,  but  they  were  for  the  purpose,  as 
I  have  said,  of  illustrating  difficult  problems  or  relaxing  the  gloom 
of  the  times. 

In  addition  to  his  penetrating  perception  of  the  needs  of  the 
day  and  his  remarkable  mental  equipment  for  bringing  his  views 
home  to  the  minds  of  the  people,  Lincoln  possessed  a  rugged  sin 
cerity  and  an  integrity  of  purpose  which  gained  for  him  the  un 
swerving  confidence  of  his  fellow  citizens.  He  sympathized  deep 
ly  with  all  the  best  hopes  and  desires  of  humanity,  and  his  par 
ticipation  in  the  freeing  of  the  slaves  was  merely  one  indication  of 
his  identity  with  the  plain  people  whom  God  had  made.  Every 
fibre  of  his  nature  was  permeated  with  conceptions  which  caused 
him  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the  weak  and  the  lowly,  and  gave  him 
strength  with  all  who  were  actuated  by  conscience.  Endowed 
with  such  a  personality,  Lincoln  was  the  living  representative  of 
the  spirit  of  pure  democracy — and  of  the  essential  principle  con 
tained  in  the  immortal  declaration  that  all  men  are  created  equal. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  too,  that  he  was  an 
heroic  figure  in  no  ordinary  time,  but  in  a  day  of  Titanic  con 
flict.  To  many  of  us  the  Civil  War  is  becoming  an  indistinct  mem- 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  THEODORE  E.  BURTON        309 

ory.  I  count  that  person  fortunate  who  was  born  in  time  to  re 
call  the  stirring  events  of  that  thrilling  era — the  gathering  of  one 
of  the  mightiest  armies  of  all  ages  from  the  farms  and  workshops 
and  counting  houses;  the  undying  spirit  of  patriotism  which  was 
aroused;  the  quick-flashing  news  of  defeats  and  victories;  the  ru 
mors  of  the  fall  of  Richmond,  reported  and  denied  within  a  single 
day;  and  the  unspeakable  calamity  in  the  loss  of  the  lives  of  the 
flower  of  the  youth  of  the  North  and  the  South  alike,  whose  ab 
sence  can  never  be  atoned  for  in  our  nation's  progress,  and  whose 
graves  are  scattered  over  plain  and  valley,  an  everlasting  reminder 
of  the  magnitude  and  horror  of  the  great  struggle!  In  this 
colossal  combat  Abraham  Lincoln  looms  up  as  the  bulwark  of  the 
Union ;  as  the  great  force  for  the  maintenance  of  law  and  the  pres 
ervation  of  our  country.  When  days  were  dark  and  friends  were 
falling  ojff  he  issued  a  call  for  troops,  and  from  the  great  loyal 
heart  of  the  North  came  a  mighty  response, 

"We  are  coming,  Father  Abraham,  six  hundred  thousand  more, 
From  Mississippi's  winding  stream,    and    from    New    England's 

shore ; 

You  have  called  us  and  we're  coming,  by  Richmond's  bloody  tide, 
To  lay  us  down  for  freedom's  sake  our  brothers'  bones  beside !" 

The  great  free  people  of  our  land  were  aroused?  and  an  army 
was  gathered  as  strong,  as  sure  to  be  triumphant,  as  any  that  ever 
mustered  beneath  the  eagles  of  any  sovereign  of  the  old  world; 
and  as  efficient  in  its  service  as  the  most  highly  trained  and  dis 
ciplined  veterans  of  Europe's  legions,  though  often  meeting  with 
defeat  and  high  mortality  losses.  And  why  ?  Because  they  were 
fighting  with  a  leader  whom  they  trusted,  and  for  a  great  cause. 
Because  there  was  no  hireling  or  mercenary  spirit  actuating  them, 


3io  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

but  rather  their  sense  of  responsibility  to  the  great  country  which 
they  loved  so  well  and  for  which  they  were  willing  to  die. 

Well  may  it  be  said  that  in  all  the  selections  of  rulers  there  was 
never  a  more  fortunate  choice  than  when  the  great  convention  at 
Chicago  named  Abraham  Lincoln.  But  for  the  great  emergency 
of  the  time  and  the  happy  circumstance  of  this  nomination  he 
might  have  remained  a  mere  local  figure,  with  a  fame  scarcely 
extending  beyond  the  bounds  of  a  single  state.  In  the  hour  of 
the  nation's  extremest  peril  he  was  called  to  the  direction  of  af 
fairs.  With  a  strong  hand  and  a  gentle  heart  he  guided  the  coun 
try  through  and  brought  victory  out  of  rebellion.  Yet  in  that 
mighty  contest  there  was  not  in  him  any  of  that  overmastering 
self-seeking  which  has  made  many  men  great.  He  was  great  be 
cause  he  must  be.  The  forces  which  impelled  him  were  rather 
overwhelming  compulsions  dwelling  within  him  and  driving  him 
onward  as  if  irresistible  Fate  determined  the  path,  into  new  and 
grander  ways  of  goodness  and  beneficence;  making  of  him,  almost 
before  he  was  aware,  emancipator  of  slaves  and  the  restorer  of  his 
country.  He  executed  the  decrees  of  destiny  which  were  laid  upon 
him  to  execute. 

In  all  the  duties  of  his  great  office  there  was  an  abiding  belief 
that  even  those  who  were  his  enemies  would  yet  see  the  right 
way.  The  first  weapons  which  suggested  themselves  to  him  were 
not  force  and  violence,  but  reason  and  persuasion.  Even  in  the 
hearts  of  those  who  were  in  rebellion  he  was  sure  that  better 
angels  existed,  and  reaching  out  a  hand  across  the  chasm  between 
North  and  South,  which  was  soon  to  be  so  bloody,  he  appealed  to 
those  who  were  seeking  to  destroy  the  government  in  the  historic 
words  so  often  repeated :  "The  mystic  chords  of  memory,  stretching 
from  every  battlefield  and  patriot  grave  to  every  living  heart  and 
hearthstone  all  over  this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  THEODORE  E.  BURTON        311 

the  Union  when  again  touched,  as  surely  they  will  be,  by  the  bet 
ter  angels  of  our  nature."  At  the  same  time  he  asked  why  there 
should  not  be  patient  confidence  in  the  justice  of  the  people,  de 
manding  if  there  were  any  better  or  equal  hope  in  the  world. 

And  again,  toward  the  close  of  the  war,  what  could  have  been 
more  noble  than  Lincoln's  policy  of  preparing  the  way  for  lasting 
peace?  His  life  was  cut  off  before  the  days  of  reconstruction,  but 
his  policy  was  always  one  of  conciliation.  He  resorted  to  no  cruel 
measures.  He  recognized  the  Southern  soldiers  as  belligerents,  and 
took  care  that  prisoners  were  well  provided  for;  always  keeping 
in  mind  the  time  when  the  disunited  states  should  once  more  be 
parts  of  an  even  mightier  nation  within  which  the  North  and 
South  would  dwell  together  in  harmony  and  in  strength.  No  one 
contributed  equally  with  him  to  the  good  feeling  which  now  pre 
vails  between  different  sections  of  the  country — a  good  feeling 
which  Lincoln  was  sure  would  exist  again,  though  time  would  be 
necessary  to  heal  the  awful  wounds. 

For  every  great  leader  who  has  played  a  prominent  part  in  the 
world'i  affairs  there  is  what  may  be  called  a  to-day  and  a  to-mor 
row.  The  to-day  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  chiefly  made  up  of  the 
brief  period  of  a  little  more  than  four  years,  during  which  he 
acted  as  chief  magistrate.  His  to-morrow  will  be  made  up  of  the 
deathless  influence  which  his  memory  and  example  will  exert 
upon  the  world's  future.  The  world  will  give  him  more. than  an 
immortality  of  fame;  it  will  give  him  an  immortality  of  influence 
as  well,  an  influence  as  potent  as  if  he  still  dwelt  upon  the  earth. 
To  all  time  he  will  be  remembered  as  a  noble  type  of  that  true 
greatness  which  delights  in  sympathy  and  in  mercy.  I  do  not  re 
call  that  Lincoln  ever  signed  a  death  warrant.  I  do  know  that 
he  saved  many  a  life  from  death,  and  that  even  the  weak  and 
the  outcast  were  given  equal  consideration  with  the  strongest 


312  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

and  most  fortunate,  when  they  came  to  the  White  House  to  se 
cure  a  hearing  from  the  President  of  the  United  States.  On  other 
anniversaries  and  in  future  generations  he  will  be  honored  not 
alone  because  of  his  great  office,  nor  because  of  his  great  place  in 
history,  but  also  because  of  his  kindly  nature  and  the  depth  of  his 
sympathies.  With  a  melancholy  which  seemed  to  forecast  his 
tragic  fate  he  lived  the  life  which  we  live — unselfish,  often  in 
sorrow,  noble  in  all  those  qualities  which  become  a  man.  His  per 
sonal  presence  is  no  longer  with  us,  but  if  ever  corruption  or  trea 
son  shall  be  prevalent  in  the  land,  if  moral  desolation  shall  bring 
us  near  to  the  gates  of  death,  then  the  patriot  who,  weary  and 
despairing,  grows  faint  in  the  struggle,  will  in  the  dreams  and 
hopes  which  give  courage  to  his  spirit,  see  the  form  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  again  among  the  people  whom  he  loved  so  well,  sadder, 
kindlier,  mightier  than  when  alive. 

I  congratulate  you,  citizens  of  New  York,  on  the  prospects  of 
almost  limitless  development  here  afforded  you  in  this  great 
metropolis.  Its  growth  has  excelled  that  of  any  city  in  the  annals 
of  commerce.  More  than  twenty-five  hundred  years  ago  the  cen 
ter  of  the  world's  commerce  was  located  at  Tyre,  described  by  one 
of  the  prophets  as  "the  crowning  city,  whose  merchants  are  princes, 
whose  traffickers  are  the  honorable  of  the  earth."  After  the  lapse 
of  centuries  Carthage  assumed  the  same  proud  position.  Then, 
after  centuries  more,  the  commercial  center,  by  the  fortunes  of 
war,  shifted  to  imperial  Rome.  Later  still  and  by  more  peaceful 
forces,  Venice  and  subsequently  Amsterdam  became  the  leading 
marts  of  trade;  until  there  was  made  the  change  which  seemed 
to  fix  the  final  seat  of  commercial  power  at  London.  Yet  in  the 
past  few  decades  it  has  become  apparent  that  another  change  has 
been  coming  to  pass,  this  time  assuredly  the  final  one,  from  Lon 
don  on  the  banks  of  the  Thames  to  New  York  City  on  the  banks 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  THEODORE  E.  BURTON        313 

of  the  Hudson.  Other  cities  there  are  which  take  the  forefront 
in  some  particular  department  of  commerce,  industry  or  finance; 
but  it  remains  for  you  to  be  supreme  in  all.  May  your  civic  life 
ever  be  worthy  of  a  city  so  great  and  prosperous ! 

Republicans  and  Democrats,  you  have  your  responsibility  in 
the  Government  of  this  country,  for  the  standards  in  politics  and 
in  public  life.  Life  should  not  be  made  up  of  trips  from  uptown, 
downtown,  nor  of  the  sole  pursuit  of  a  single  profession  or  branch 
of  business.  Our  everyday  thought  should  turn  to  the  state,  which 
has  given  us  these  golden  opportunities  of  life  and  to  which  we 
owe  allegiance  as  citizens. 

I  have  sometimes  spoken  on  the  rights  of  politicians.  The 
prevalent  idea  is  that  no  one  is  entitled  to  any  large  degree  of 
credit  who  has  been  in  political  life  until  he  passes  beyond  the 
river.  Then  he  is  sometimes  called  a  statesman.  But  my  con 
tention  is  that  every  politician  has  a  right  to  be  judged  carefully 
and  fairly,  not  superficially.  The  public  should  not  make  up  its 
decisions  on  the  basis  of  sensational  headlines,  but  each  citizen 
should  give  that  attention  to  the  affairs  affecting  his  country,  his 
state  and  his  city  which  he  bestows  on  his  own  profession  or  oc 
cupation. 

President  Harrison  very  appropriately  said,  in  speaking  of  the 
framing  of  our  Constitution,  that  no  set  of  men  could  have  framed 
an  instrument  or  established  a  government  so  perfect  that  the  in 
telligent  and  patriotic  members  of  society  could  go  away  and 
leave  the  document  to  take  care  of  itself  and  of  the  public  weal. 
Eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty,  and  eternal  diligence  is  the 
price  of  good  government.  My  thought  is  that  the  crying  evil 
in  the  politics  of  the  day  is  the  indifference  of  the  very  large 
share  of  our  citizens.  Graft  will  disappear,  corrupt  men  will  be 
driven  out  of  office — indeed  will  no  longer  be  able  to  obtain  office — 


314  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

if  the  citizens  of  this  republic  give  that  attention  to  public  af 
fairs  which  they  owe,  not  only  for  the  credit  and  the  glory  of 
their  country,  but  for  their  own  benefit  as  well.  Let  this,  citizens 
of  New  York,  be  your  study,  to  make  for  yourselves  a  model 
municipality,  and  then  so  long  as  the  Hudson  flows  by  to  the  sea 
this  city  will  be  a  source  of  influence,  yes,  of  almost  commanding 
influence,  in  the  concerns  which  pertain  to  the  state  and  nation. 

A  hundred  years  from  now  others  will  gather  to  celebrate  the 
anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  I  do  not  know  what 
will  be  the  conditions  then.  I  am  not  sure  whether  our  sov 
ereignty  shall  be  confined  within  the  present  borders  of  what  is 
called  Continental  America.  Our  influence  may  have  extended  far 
beyond  those  limits.  But  if  there  shall  be  expansion  I  hope  that 
it  will  not  be  by  conquering  legions  or  battleships,  but  by  the 
realization  on  the  part  of  our  neighbors  that  they  will  be  better 
off  with  us,  as  a  part  of  the  free  United  States  of  America,  so  that 
they  shall  come  to  us  voluntarily  seeking  annexation.  I  cannot 
forecast  what  will  be  our  means  of  communication,  whether  on 
the  earth,  or  the  sea,  or  in  the  air.  Neither  do  I  know  what  will 
be  the  prevailing  type  of  American  manhood  and  womanhood ;  but 
I  most  earnestly  hope  that  this  type  will  be  cast  in  the  same  splen 
did  mould  which  has  furnished  the  men  and  women  of  the  best 
days  of  the  past  and  the  present — men  and  women  with  the  high 
est  ideals ;  and  that  then,  as  now,  the  memory  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
will  be  an  inspiration  and  an  example  to  follow  and  to  emulate, 
though  "dynasties  shall  have  decayed  and  golden  diadems  crum 
bled  into  dust." 


THE  TWENTY-THIRD 
ANNUAL  LINCOLN  DINNER 

of  the 
REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

of  the 
City  of  New  York 

FEBRUARY  12,  1909 


Address  of 
BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON,  LL.D. 


BOOKER  TALIAFERRO  WASHINGTON,  A.M.,LL.D. 

Mr.  Washington  was  born  near  Hale's  Ford,  Va., 
1859,  of  African  descent.  He  was  educated  at  Hampton 
Institute,  Va.,  where  he  taught  until  called  to  Tuskegee, 
Ala.,  by  the  authorities  of  that  State.  His  successful 
founding  and  administration  of  the  Tuskegee  Industrial 
Institute  has  made  him  a  commanding  figure  in  work 
for  the  Negro.  He  is  well  known  as  a  speaker  and  as 
the  author  of  many  books  on  racial  and  social  subjects, 
among  them  "Up  From  Slavery,"  1901;  "Future  of  the 
American  Negro,"  1902;  "Working  with  the  Hands," 
1904;  "Tuskegee  and  Its  People,"  1905;  "Putting  the 
Most  Into  Life,"  1906;  "Life  of  Frederick  Douglass," 
1907;  "The  Negro  in  Business,"  1907. 


ADDRESS  OF 

BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON,  LL.D. 


President  Young  and  Gentlemen :  You  ask  that  which  he  found 
a  piece  of  property  and  turned  into  a  free  American  citizen  to  speak 
to  you  to-night  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  I  am  not  fitted  by  ancestry, 
nor  by  training,  to  be  your  teacher  to-night,  for,  as  I  have  stated, 
I  was  born  a  slave.  My  first  knowledge  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
came  in  this  way:  I  lay  sleeping  one  morning  on  the  dirt  floor 
of  our  slave  cabin;  I  was  awakened  by  the  prayers  of  my  mother 
kneeling  over  my  bed  as  I  lay  wrapped  in  a  bundle  of  rags,  earnest 
ly  praying  that  one  day  Abraham  Lincoln  might  succeed  and  that 
one  day  she  and  her  boy  might  be  free.  You  give  me  the  chance, 
Gentlemen  of  the  Republican  Club,  to  celebrate  with  you  and  the 
nation  to-night  the  answer  to  that  prayer.  Says  the  Great  Book 
somewhere,  "Though  a  man  die,  yet  shall  he  live."  If  this  be  true 
of  the  ordinary  man,  how  much  more  is  it  true  of  the  hero  of  the 
hour  and  the  hero  of  the  century,  Abraham  Lincoln.  One  hundred 
years  of  the  life  and  influence  of  Lincoln  is  the  story  of  the  strug 
gle,  the  trials,  the  triumphs,  the  success  of  the  people  of  our  com 
plex  American  civilization.  Interwoven  into  the  warp  and  woof 
of  this  story  is  the  moving  story  of  the  people  of  all  races  and 
colors  in  their  struggles  from  weakness  to  power,  from  poverty  to 
wealth,  from  slavery  to  freedom.  Knit  into  the  story  of  the  life 
of  Lincoln  also  is  the  story  of  the  success  of  the  nation,  and 
the  welding  of  all  creeds,  colors  and  races  into  one  great  composite 


THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 


nation,  leaving  each  individual,  separate  group  free  to  lead  and 
live  its  own  special  social  life,  yet  each  a  part  of  a  great  whole. 
If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live?  Answering  this  question  as  applied 
to  my  race  perhaps  you  expect  me  to  confine  my  words  of  appre 
ciation  to  the  great  boon  that  our  martyred  president  conferred 
upon  my  race.  My  undying  gratitude  and  that  of  ten  millions 
of  my  race  for  that,  and  yet  more.  To  have  been  the  instrument 
which  was  used  by  Providence  to  confer  freedom  upon  four  millions 
of  African  slaves,  now  grown  into  ten  millions  of  free  American 
citizens,  would  within  itself  have  brought  eternal  fame  to  any 
name.  But,  my  friends,  this  is  not  the  only  claim  that  Lincoln 
has  upon  our  sense  of  gratitude  and  our  sense  of  appreciation. 
To-day  by  the  side  of  General  S.  C.  Armstrong,  and  by  the  side  of 
William  Lloyd  Garrison,  Lincoln  lives.  In  the  very  highest  sense 
he  lives  in  the  present  more  potently  than  fifty  years  ago.  If  that 
which  is  seen  is  temporal,  that  which  is  unseen  is  eternal.  He 
lives  in  the  thirty-two  thousand  young  men  and  women  of  the 
negro  race  learning  trades  and  other  useful  occupations,  in  the 
two  hundred  thousand  farms  acquired  by  those  that  he  freed,  in 
the  more  than  four  hundred  thousand  homes  built,  in  the  forty- 
six  banks  established  and  ten  thousand  stores  owned,  in  the  five 
hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  dollars  worth  of  taxable  property 
in  hand,  in  the  twenty-eight  thousand  public  schools  with  thirty 
thousand  teachers,  in  the  one  hundred  and  seventy  industrial 
schools,  colleges  and  universities,  and  in  the  twenty-three  thousand 
churches  and  twenty-six  thousand  ministers.  But,  my  friends, 
above  and  beyond  all  this  he  lives  in  the  steady,  unalterable  de 
termination  of  these  millions  of  black  citizens  to  continue  to  climb 
the  ladder  of  the  highest  success,  to  perfect  themselves  in  the 
highest  usefulness  and  to  perfect  themselves  year  by  year  in  strong, 
robust  American  characters.  For  making  all  this  possible,  Lin- 


ADDRESS  OF  BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON,  LL.D.       319 

coin  lives  to-night.  But  again,  for  a  higher  reason,  he  lives  to 
night  in  every  corner  of  the  Republic.  To  set  the  physical  man 
free  means  much;  to  set  the  spiritual  man  free  means  more,  for 
so  often  the  keeper  is  on  the  inside  of  the  prison  bars  and  the 
prisoner  on  the  outside.  As  an  individual,  as  grateful  as  I  am  to 
Lincoln  for  freedom  of  body,  my  gratitude  is  still  greater  for 
freedom  of  soul,  the  liberty  which  permits  one  to  live  up  in  that 
atmosphere  where  he  refuses  to  permit  sectional  or  racial  hatred 
to  drag  down  and  warp  and  narrow  his  soul.  The  signing  of  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation  was  a  great  event,  and  yet  it  was 
but  the  symbol  of  another  still  greater  and  more  momentous.  We 
who  celebrate  this  anniversary  should  not  forget  that  the  same 
pen  that  gave  freedom  to  four  millions  of  African  slaves  at  the 
same  time  struck  the  shackles  of  slavery  from  the  souls  of  twenty- 
seven  millions  of  American  citizens  of  another  color. 

In  any  country,  regardless  of  what  its  laws  may  say,  wherever 
people  act  upon  the  principle  that  the  disadvantage  of  one  man  is 
the  good  of  another,  there  slavery  exists.  Wherever  in  any  coun 
try  the  whole  people  feel  that  the  happiness  of  all  is  dependent 
upon  the  happiness  of  the  weakest  individual,  there  freedom  exists. 
In  abolishing  slavery  Lincoln  proclaimed  the  principle  that  even 
in  the  case  of  the  humblest  and  lowest  of  mankind,  the  welfare  of 
each  is  still  the  good  of  all.  In  re-establishing  in  this  country  the 
principle  that  at  bottom  the  interests  of  humanity  and  the  in 
dividual  are  one,  he  freed  men's  souls  from  spiritual  bondage  and  he 
freed  them  to  mutual  helpfulness.  Henceforth  no  man  or  no  race 
in  the  North  or  in  the  South  need  feel  constrained  to  hate  or  fear 
his  brother.  By  the  same  token  that  Lincoln  made  America  free, 
he  pushed  back  the  boundaries  of  freedom  everywhere,  gave  the 
spirit  of  liberty  a  wider  influence  throughout  the  world  and  re 
established  the  dignity  of  man  as  a  man.  By  the  same  act  that 


320  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

freed  my  race  he  said  to  the  civilized  and  uncivilized  world  that 
man  everywhere  must  be  free,  that  man  everywhere  must  be  en 
lightened,  and  the  Lincoln  spirit  of  freedom  and  fair-play  will 
never  cease  to  spread  and  grow  in  power  until  throughout  the 
world  men  everywhere  shall  know  the  truth  and  the  truth  shall 
make  them  free. 

Lincoln  was  wise  enough  to  recognize  that  which  is  true  in 
the  present  and  true  for  all  time,  that  in  a  state  of  slavery  man 
renders  the  lowest  and  most  costly  form  of  service  to  his  fel 
lows.  In  a  state  of  freedom  and  enlightenment  he  renders  the 
highest  and  most  helpful  form  of  service.  The  world 
is  fast  learning  that  of  all  forms  of  slavery  there  is  none  that  is 
so  degrading,  that  is  so  hurtful,  as  that  form  of  slavery  which 
makes  one  human  being  to  hate  another  by  reason  of  his  race  or 
by  reason  of  his  color.  One  man,  my  friends,  cannot  hold  an 
other  man  down  in  the  ditch  without  remaining  down  in  the  ditch 
with  him.  When  I  was  a  boy  I  used  to  have  a  great  reputation 
for  fighting.  I  could  whip  every  boy  with  whom  I  fought  and 
I  was  careful  to  maintain  that  reputation  as  long  as  possible,  but 
the  people  about  me  did  not  know  how  I  maintained  it.  I  was 
always  careful  in  my  selection  of  the  boy  with  whom  I  fought. 
I  was  always  sure  that  he  was  smaller  than  I  was,  weaker  than  I 
was.  As  I  grew  older  I  used  to  take  pleasure,  as  I  thought,  in 
getting  hold  of  those  little  fellows  and  holding  them  down  in  the 
ditch,  but  when  I  grew  to  manhood  I  soon  learned  that  when  I 
held  those  little  fellows  down  in  the  ditch  I  had  to  remain  down 
there  with  them  as  long  as  they  remained,  and  to  let  them  up  I 
had  to  get  up  myself. 

My  friends,  one  who  goes  through  life  with  his  eyes  closed 
against  all  that  is  best  in  another  race  is  as  narrow  and  as  circum- 


ADDRESS  OF  BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON,  LL.D.       321 

scribed  as  one  who  fights  in  battle  with  one  hand  tied  behind 
him. 

Lincoln  was  in  the  truest  sense  great  because  he  unfettered  him 
self.  He  climbed  up  out  of  the  valley  where  his  vision  was  nar 
rowed  and  weakened  by  the  fog  and  miasma  onto  the  mountain  top, 
where  in  pure  and  unclouded  atmosphere  he  could  see  the  truth 
which  enabled  him  to  rate  all  men  at  their  true  worth.  Growing 
out  of  his  universal  ascent  and  atmosphere  may  there  crystallize 
throughout  the  nation  a  resolve  that  on  such  a  mountain  the 
American  people  will  strive  to  live.  We  owe  then  to  Lincoln, 
physical  freedom,  moral  freedom,  and  yet  not  all.  There  is  a  debt 
of  gratitude  which  we  as  individuals,  no  matter  to  what 
race  or  nation  we  may  belong,  must  recognize  as  due  to  Abraham 
Lincoln.  Not  for  what  he  did  as  Chief  Magistrate  of  a  nation, 
for  what  he  did  as  a  man.  In  his  rise  from  the  most  abject  pov 
erty  and  ignorance  to  a  position  of  the  highest  usefulness  and 
power,  he  taught  one  of  the  greatest  of  all  lessons.  In  fighting 
his  own  battle  from  obscurity  and  squalor  he  fought  the  battle 
of  every  other  individual  and  every  other  race  that  was  down, 
and  so  helped  to  pull  up  every  other  man  that  was  down,  no  mat 
ter  where  he  lived.  People  so  often  forget  that  by  every  inch 
that  the  lowest  man  crawls  up  he  makes  it  easier  for  every  other 
man  to  get  up.  To-day  throughout  the  world,  because  Lincoln 
lived  and  struggled  and  triumphed,  every  boy  who  is  ignorant, 
every  boy  who  is  in  poverty,  every  boy  who  is  despised,  every  boy 
who  is  discouraged  holds  his  head  a  little  higher,  his  heart  beats 
a  little  faster,  his  ambition  to  be  something  and  to  do  some 
thing  is  a  little  stronger,  because  Lincoln  blazed  the  way. 

To  my  own  race  at  this  point  in  its  career  there  are  special 
lessons  for  us  in  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  In  so  far  as  his 
life  emphasizes  patience,  long-suffering,  sincerity,  naturalness, 


322  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

dogged  determination  and  courage,  courage  to  avoid  the  super 
ficial,  courage  to  persist  insistently  and  seek  after  the  substance 
instead  of  the  shadow,  so  far  as  it  emphasizes  these  elements,  the 
character,  the  life  of  Lincoln  points  the  road  that  my  race  is  to 
travel  to  success.  As  a  race  we  are  learning  more  and  more,  I 
believe,  in  an  increasing  degree,  that  the  best  way  for  us  to  honor 
the  memory  of  our  great  emancipator  is  in  trying  to  be  like  him. 
Like  him,  the  negro  should  seek  to  be  simple,  without  bigotry  and 
without  ostentation.  That  is  great  power,  not  simplicity.  Great 
men  are  always  simple  men,  great  races  are  those  that  strive 
for  simplicity.  We,  as  a  race,  should,  like  Lincoln,  have  moral 
courage  to  be  what  we  are  and  not  pretend  to  be  what  we  are 
not.  We  should  keep  in  mind  that  no  one  can  degrade  us  except 
ourselves,  and  that  if  we  are  worthy  no  influence  can  defeat  us. 
Like  other  races  we  shall  meet  with  obstacles.  The  negro  will 
often  meet  with  stumbling  blocks,  often  be  sorely  tried,  often  be 
sorely  tempted,  but  he  should  remember  that  freedom  in  its  highest 
and  broadest  sense  has  never  been  a  bequest,  it  is  always  a  con 
quest.  In  the  final  test  the  success  of  our  race  will  be  in  propor 
tion  to  the  service  that  it  renders  to  the  world.  In  the  long  run 
the  badge  of  service  is  the  badge  of  sovereignty. 

With  all  his  other  elements  of  strength,  Lincoln  possessed  in 
the  highest  degree,  patience,  and,  as  I  have  said,  courage.  The 
highest  form  of  courage  is  not  that  which  is  always  exhibited 
on  the  battlefield  in  the  midst  of  the  flare  of  trumpets  and  the 
waving  of  flags.  The  highest  courage  is  of  the  Lincoln  kind; 
it  is  the  same  kind  of  courage  that  is  daily  manifested  by  the 
thousands  of  young  men  and  young  women  who  are  going  out 
from  Hampton  and  Tuskegee  and  Atlanta,  and  similar  institu 
tions,  without  thought  of  salary,  without  thought  of  personal  com 
fort,  and  are  giving  up  their  lives  in  the  erection  of  a  school 


ADDRESS  OF  BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON,  LL.D.  323 

system,  the  building  of  schoolhouses,  the  prolonging  of  school 
terms,  the  teaching  of  our  people  how  to  build  decent,  clean  homes 
and  live  honorable,  clean  lives.  And,  my  friends,  those  young  men 
and  young  women  who  are  going  out  in  this  simple  way  are  fight 
ing  the  battles  of  this  country  just  as  truly,  just  as  bravely,  as 
any  man  who  goes  out  to  do  battle  against  a  foreign  foe. 

In  paying  my  tribute  of  respect  to  the  martyred  president  I  de 
sire  to  say  a  word  further  in  behalf  of  an  element  of  brave  and 
true  white  men  of  the  South,  who,  though  they  thought  they  saw 
in  Lincoln's  policy  the  ruin  of  all  that  they  believed  in  and  hoped 
for,  have  nevertheless  loyally  accepted  the  results  of  the  Civil 
War  and  to-day  are  working  with  a  courage  that  few  people  in 
the  North  can  understand  or  appreciate  to  uplift  the  negro,  and 
thus  complete  the  emancipation  which  Lincoln  began.  And  here 
I  am  almost  tempted,  my  friends,  even  in  this  presence,  to  add  that 
it  would  require  almost  as  high  a  degree  of  courage  for  men  of 
the  type  of  J.  M.  L.  Curry,  John  E.  Gordon  and  Robert  E.  Lee  to  ac 
cept  in  the  manner  and  the  spirit  that  they  did  the  results  of  the 
Civil  War  as  the  courage  displayed  on  the  battlefield,  by  Lincoln, 
by  Grant  and  Sherman  in  saving  the  Republic. 

And  in  this  connection,  my  friends,  forgive  me  for  adding  this 
in  this  presence:  I  am  glad  to  meet  here  the  Bishop  of  the  City  of 
New  York ;  I  am  glad  to  meet  here  the  senator-elect  from  the  great 
State  of  Ohio;  I  am  glad  to  meet  the  president  of  your  club;  I  am 
glad  to  greet  and  to  shake  hands  with  all  the  noble  men  who 
surround  this  banquet  board,  but,  my  friends,  there  is  one  man  in 
this  room  whom  I  am  glad  most  of  all  to  meet,  and  that  is  the 
young  man  who  played  with  me  when  I  was  a  slave,  the  grandson 
of  the  man  who  owned  my  body  on  a  Virginia  farm — I  refer  to  my 
friend,  Mr.  A.  H.  Burroughs,  whom  I  met  for  the  first  time  this 
week  since  the  day  of  slavery,  and  who  is  now  an  honored  lawyer 


324  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

in  your  city.  How  well  do  I  remember  that  in  the  days  of  slavery 
we  played  together  in  my  master's  yard,  and  perhaps  fought  to 
gether,  But,  my  friends,  I  recall  also  the  picture  early  one  morn 
ing  of  the  slaves  gathering  around  the  master's  house  and  about 
hearing  for  the  first  time  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  read 
to  us  that  declared  us  free.  The  same  proclamation  that  declared 
me  a  freeman  declared  my  boyhood  friend  and  the  grandson  of  my 
former  owner  a  free  man  at  the  same  time. 

Lincoln  also,  my  friends,  let  me  add,  was  a  Southern  man  by 
birth,  but  he  was  one  of  those  white  men  of  whom  there  is  a 
large  and  growing  class  who  resented  the  idea  that  in  order  to 
assert  and  maintain  the  superiority  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  it  was 
necessary  that  another  group  of  human  beings  should  be  kept  in 
ignorance.  Lincoln  was  not  afraid  or  ashamed  to  come  in  con 
tact  with  the  lowly  of  all  races.  His  reputation  and  social  stand 
ing  were  not  of  such  a  transitory  and  transparent  kind  that  he 
was  afraid  that  he  would  lose  them  by  being  kind  and  just  even 
to  a  man  of  dark  skin.  I  always  pity  from  the  bottom  of  my 
heart  any  man  who  feels  that  somebody  else  must  be  kept  down 
and  kept  in  ignorance  in  order  that  he  may  appear  great  by  com 
parison.  It  requires  no  courage  for  a  strong  man  to  keep  a  weak 
man  down.  Lincoln  lives  to-day  because  he  had  a  courage  that 
made  him  refuse  to  hate  the  man  at  the  North  or  the  man  at  the 
South  when  they  did  not  agree  with  him.  He  had  the  courage,  as 
well  as  the  patience  and  foresight,  to  suffer  the  silence  to  be  mis 
understood,  to  be  abused,  to  refuse  to  revile  when  reviled,  because 
he  knew  if  he  was  right  the  ridicule  of  to-day  would  mean  the 
applause  of  to-morrow.  He  knew,  too,  that  in  some  distant  day 
our  nation  would  repent  of  the  folly  of  cursing  its  public  servants 
while  they  live  and  blessing  them  only  when  they  die.  In  this 
connection  I  cannot  refrain  from  suggesting  the  question  to  the 


ADDRESS  OF  BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON,  LL.D.  325 

millions  of  voices  raised  to-day  in  his  praise:  "Why  didn't  you 
say  it  yesterday?  Just  that  one  word  of  gratitude,  one  word  of 
appreciation  would  have  gone  so  far  in  strengthening  his  heart  and 
his  hand."  As  we  recall  to-night  his  words  and  deeds  we  can  do 
so  with  grateful  hearts  and  strong  faith  in  the  future  for  the 
spread  of  righteousness.  The  civilization  of  the  world  is  going 
forward,  not  backward.  Here  and  there,  for  a  little  season,  prog 
ress  may  seem  to  halt  or  tarry  by  the  wayside,  or  even  slide  back 
wards,  but  the  trend  is  ever  onward  and  upward  and  will  be  so 
until  some  man  invent  and  enforce  a  law  to  stop  the  progress 
of  civilization.  In  goodness  and  in  liberality  the  world  moves 
forward.  It  moves  forward  beneficently,  but  it  moves  forward 
relentlessly.  In  the  last  analysis  the  forces  of  nature  are  behind 
the  progress  of  the  world,  and  those  forces  will  crush  into  powder 
any  group  of  humanity  that  resists  this  progress. 

As  we  gather  here  to-night,  brothers  all  in  common  joy  and 
thanksgiving  for  the  life  of  Lincoln,  can  I  not  ask  that  you,  the 
worthy  representatives  of  seventy  millions  of  white  Americans, 
join  heart  and  hand  with  the  ten  millions  of  black  Americans, 
these  ten  millions  who  speak  your  tongue,  profess  your  religion 
and  have  never  lifted  their  voices  or  their  hands  except  in  defense 
of  their  country's  honor  and  their  country's  flag,  and  with  us 
swear  eternal  fealty  to  the  traditions  and  to  the  memory  of  the 
sainted  Lincoln?  I  repeat,  may  I  not  ask  that  you  join  with  us 
and  let  us  all  here  highly  resolve  that  justice,  good  will  and  peace 
shall  be  the  motto  of  our  lives?  And  if  this  be  true,  my  friends, 
Lincoln  shall  not  have  lived  and  died  in  vain.  And,  finally, 
gathering  inspiration  and  encouragement  from  this  hour  and  Lin 
coln's  life,  I  pledge  to  you  and  to  the  nation  that  my  race,  in  so 
far  as  I  can  speak  for  it,  which,  in  the  past,  whether  in  slavery 
or  in  freedom,  whether  in  ignorance  or  intelligence,  has  always 


326  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

been  true  to  the  highest  and  best  interests  of  this  country,  has  al 
ways  been  true  to  the  stars  and  stripes,  will  strive  so  to  deport 
itself  that  it  will  reflect  nothing  but  the  highest  credit  upon  the 
whole  people  in  the  North  and  in  the  South. 


APPENDIX 


ADDRESS  OF 


HON.  BENJAMIN   HARRISON 

Ex-President  of  the  United  States 


Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Republican  Club  of  New 
York  City:  Some  bright  member  here  has  made  my  speech  for 
me.  There  has  been  some  strange  incongruity  in  the  places  of 
these  toasts  to-night.  It  is  not  a  pleasant  assignment  to  follow 
the  magnificent  speech  in  behalf  of  the  Republican  party — detail 
ing  its  achievements,  bringing  to  our  recollection  the  brilliant 
pathway  in  which  it  has  walked — with  a  suggestion  that  there 
is  to  be  some  reform  within  it.  I  suppose  the  suggestion  is  hypo 
thetical  in  its  character.  It  was  meant  to  bring  to  our  attention 
to-night  a  suggestion  that  when  the  Republican  party  needs  re 
forming  we  will  do  it  ourselves.  It  is  a  question  that  we  have 
not  debated  in  Indiana.  I  am,  therefore,  unfamiliar  with  the 
arguments  by  which  it  should  be  supported.  I  must  appeal,  not 
to  experience,  but  to  philosophy,  to  defend  the  suggestion  of  my 
toast.  I  suppose  it  must  be  some  question  of  table  manners  in 
the  Republican  party  that  is  giving  somebody  some  trouble. 
Nothing  more  serious  than  that.  And,  if  that  be  true,  then  I  sug 
gest  that  the  instructor  who  would  reform  our  table  manners 
must  belong  to  the  household.  The  unfriendly  criticisms  of  the 
man  across  the  street  will  not  be  accepted.  Or,  it  may  be  that 
somebody  is  discontented  with  our  tactics.  If  so,  I  suggest  that 
he  will  not  promote  that  reform  by  deserting  to  the  enemy.  He 
loses  the  point  of  influence  when  he  does  so.  He  may  from  his  new 


330  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

position  kill  and  destroy,  but  he  cannot  promote  a  reform  in 
tactics. 

If  there  are  barnacles  on  the  old  ship  it  is  poor  policy  to  scuttle 
her.  Let  us  put  her  in  the  dry-dock  and  scrape  her  hull!  Or, 
better  still,  take  her  into  fresh  water  and  those  impediments  will 
drop  off  of  themselves,  and  the  good  old  ship  will  yet  show  her 
heels  again  to  the  pirates  that  are  pursuing  her.  The  man  who 
thanks  God  that  he  is  not  as  other  men  are  has  lost  the  power 
of  persuasion.  He  can't  draw.  And,  therefore,  it  is  that  the 
reform  of  the  Republican  party  must  come  from  men  who  believe 
in  it,  who  believe  in  its  history,  who  believe  in  its  power  of 
growth  and  development,  to  throw  off — not  by  the  lopping  of  the 
axe,  but  by  the  inherent  power  of  vital  growth — everything  that 
may  attach  itself  to  it  that  is  unseemly  or  unsightly.  The 
man  who  would  succeed  in  life  must  put  his  shoulder  under  the 
load  and  not  reach  down  his  dainty  and  hesitating  fingers  toward 
the  load,  as  some  Republicans  seem  to  have  thought  was  the  right 
policy  in  these  latter  years.  The  great  body  of  the  Republican 
party  has  always  believed  in  pure  methods  and  in  pure  men.  It 
only  needs,  everywhere,  that  its  primaries  shall  be  open  to  all  its 
voters.  It  only  needs  that  every  Republican  in  those  foundations 
of  political  influence  and  action  shall  be  free  to  bring  to  bear 
upon  its  policies  and  upon  its  nominations  an  individual  influence. 

I  do  not  know  whether  there  are  here,  or  in  any  of  the  Eastern 
States,  any  restraints  or  limitations  upon  this  freedom.  I  do 
know  with  us  in  the  West  the  Republican  primaries  are  free 
and  open  to  every  man  who  can  prove  his  fidelity  to  the  party 
by  his  work  at  the  polls.  The  influences  that  formed  the  Repub 
lican  party  were  eclectic  in  their  nature.  The  call  that  brought 
them  together  was  a  call  to  sacrifice  and  not  to  spoils,  and  ever 
since,  that  has  been  the  dominating  power  in  the  Republican 


ADDRESS  OF  EX-PRESIDENT  HARRISON  331 

party.  The  springs  from  which  it  drew  its  inspirations  were 
found  in  the  high  hills  of  truth  and  duty.  Who  formed  it  ?  Will 
some  man  name  its  architect?  You  may  call  to-night  the  roll  of 
its  first  convention,  but  they  were  delegates  who  assembled  there, 
and  its  platform  was  first  written  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  be 
fore  it  was  reported  to  the  convention.  The  men  of  '56  and  their 
worthy  sons  constitute  the  party  to-day.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say 
that  the  conscience — the  patriotism — of  this  country  is  in  the  Re 
publican  party.  It  never  responds  with  more  alacrity,  or  with 
more  magnificent  force,  than  when  some  moral  issue  challenges 
its  allegiance  and  its  actions. 

It  has  been  a  party  of  progress.  It  has  pioneered  just  as  the 
settlers  from  these  Eastern  States  in  the  earlier  times  cut  out 
their  pathways  for  emigration  through  the  wilderness  of  the 
West;  so  has  the  Republican  party,  by  its  great  leaders  and  its 
great  following,  marked  out  new  paths  in  statesmanship  and 
brought  after  them  liberty  and  peace  and  an  amazing  prosperity. 

The  Democratic  party  has  been  a  party  of  obstruction.  It  has 
seemed  to  me  that  it  was  the  boulder  in  this  great  stream  of 
progress  and  prosperity  which  has  been  bearing  us  on — resisting, 
fretting,  complaining  and  making  progress  itself  only  as  it  was 
borne  along  by  the  current  that  it  resisted.  I  have  seen  some 
times,  upon  a  hot  summer's  day,  on  one  of  our  dusty  turnpikes  in 
Indiana,  a  remarkable  equipage,  a  poor  lean  horse  with  shuck 
collar  and  rope  lines,  dragging  a  creaking  vehicle,  whose  wheels 
followed  each  other  in  this  fashion,  with  a  sallow,  sad-faced  man 
in  the  wagon,  and  a  more  sallow  and  more  sad-faced  woman  walk 
ing  behind,  and  a  yellow  dog  trotting  along  beneath,  and  as  I 
have  noticed  that  equipage  dragging  its  weary,  dusty  way  along 
upon  the  turnpike  that  had  been  made  for  it,  amid  cultivated 
fields,  dotted  with  schoolhouses  and  with  church  spires,  denot- 


332  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

ing  and  pointing  the  faith  of  the  people  who  had  the  courage 
to  open  and  settle  the  country — as  I  have  seen  it  drawing  its 
weary  way  along,  I  have  said  to  myself:  "Here  comes  the  Dem 
ocratic  party!" 

I  think  these  reforms  must  begin  and  progress  and  end  within 
the  party,  because  I  do  not  know  of  any  political  organization 
outside  of  it  that  has  any  reformative  power  to  spare.  Certainly 
not  the  Democratic  party.  I  know  that  our  mugwump  friends 
think  that  they  have  a  great  deal  of  surplus  reformative  energy, 
but  the  trouble  with  those  people  is  that  they  have  put  themselves 
up  on  the  shelf  like  some  dried  cakes  of  Fleischman's  compressed 
yeast,  and  they  can  have  no  power  upon  the  mass  that  they  should 
leaven,  because  they  have  ceased  to  have  contact  with  it. 

I  unite  in  the  invitation,  so  gracefully  extended  to  them  by 
brother  Hawley,  to  come  back,  to  put  the  leaven  in  the  lump, 
and  let  us  have  the  benefit  of  it,  and  to  abandon  this  silly  notion 
that  these  dried  cakes  on  the  shelf  can  work  the  reform  of  the 
Republican  party. 

And  so  it  is.  We  will  do  our  own  work,  like  the  vital  force. 
The  Republican  party  is  opening  its  primaries,  making  free  the 
sources  of  power  and  influence  within  it,  and  asking  that  where 
there  has  been  a  free  and  fair  expression  in  convention  that  every 
man  will  give  his  allegiance  and  his  support  to  the  work  which 
the  convention  does. 


ADDRESS  OF 

HON.  WILLIAM   McKINLEY 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Republican  Club  of  New 
York :  Having  heard  now  for  more  than  three  hours  just  and  well- 
merited  reflections  upon  the  Democratic  party,  I  have  become  sat 
isfied  that  that  party  needs  revision  a  good  deal  more  than  the 
tariff  does ;  and  I  am  satisfied,  too,  that  there  will  be  no  reduction 
of  the  surplus  revenues  now  in  the  treasury,  and  the  surplus  rev 
enues  now  collected,  until  the  Democratic  majority  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  shall  be  reduced  to  a  hopeless  minority;  and  to 
secure  that,  gentlemen  of  the  New  York  club,  is  one  of  the  great 
duties  devolving  upon  the  Republican  party  to-day.  We  have 
some  very  singular  exhibitions  of  inconsistency  among  the  people 
touching  this  question  of  the  tariff,  and  the  relation  of  the  Con 
gress  of  the  United  States  to  this  important  subject.  We  have 
petitions  immediately  after  each  Congress  is  elected,  from  Demo 
crats  praying  to  be  saved  from  the  work  of  the  Democratic  Con 
gress,  and  there  are  in  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  to-night 
thousands  of  petitions  from  merchants,  from  laboring  men,  from 
farmers,  from  our  fellow-citizens  generally,  who  contributed  to 
make  the  Fiftieth  Congress  Democratic — their  petitions  are  now 
on  file  in  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  praying  to  be  saved 
from  the  work  of  their  own  hands.  The  way  to  save  themselves 
from  the  necessity  of  petitioning  against  a  Democratic  Congress 
is  not  to  elect  one — that  is  the  place  to  begin,  and  I  would  not 


334  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

assume  to  speak  here  to-night  upon  the  subject  of  the  tariff  at  all, 
and  I  am  only  going  to  speak  a  moment — I  am  going  to  take  my 
watch  out  at  the  beginning;  I  say  I  would  not  assume  to  speak 
upon  the  subject  of  the  tariff  to-night  except  that  there  is  a  good 
deal  of  ignorance  upon  that  subject  everywhere,  and  a  good  deal 
of  it  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  A  gentleman  rose  in 
his  place  on  the  floor  of  the  House  less  than  ten  days  ago,  report 
ing  back  a  resolution  for  the  investigation  of  the  strikes  in  the 
anthracite  regions  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  strike  of  Reading  rail 
road  employees,  and  he  confessed  there  in  open  House,  that  he  had 
had  to  revise  his  speech;  that  he  had  originally  prepared  it  to  show 
that  the  iniquitous  and  oppressive  tariff  upon  coal  had  been  the 
cause  of  the  strike,  and  that  fortunately  he  had  discovered  that 
very  morning  that  there  was  no  tariff  or  duty  upon  anthracite 
coal  at  all.  Now,  I  say,  if  there  is  so  much  want  of  knowledge 
upon  that  subject  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  among  the 
gentlemen  chosen  to  make  your  industrial  laws,  then  I  must  as 
sume  that  even  in  the  great  city  and  State  of  New  York  there  may 
be  some  little  want  of  information  even  among  the  Republicans. 
Now,  these  gentlemen  have  all  talked  to  you  a  good  deal  about  the 
tariff — the  fact  is,  they  have  poached  on  me — all  of  them.  They 
knew  I  was  sick.  I  have  been  following  Senator  Sherman  for 
three  days,  and  I  want  to  tell  you  it  is  as  difficult  to  follow  him 
as  it  was  to  follow  his  illustrious  brother,  old  Tecumseh,  during 
the  war.  He  sweeps  everything  before  him,  and  leaves  nothing 
behind  for  those  who  follow. 

Now,  what  is  the  exact  line  of  difference  between  the  Demo 
cratic  and  Republican  parties  upon  this  question  of  the  tariff? 
The  Democratic  party  is  in  favor  of  a  revenue  tariff — that  is,  a 
tax  or  a  duty  put  upon  foreign  goods  imported  into  the  United 
States  which  do  not  compete  with  what  we  produce  here.  That 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  WILLIAM  McKINLEY  335 

is  a  revenue  tariff;  a  tariff  which  dismisses  all  other  consideration 
save  and  except  revenue,  and  selects  out  of  the  group  of  imported 
articles  those  which  with  the  smallest  tax  will  raise  the  largest 
amount  of  revenue,  and  upon  those  they  put  the  duty.  Now,  that 
is  a  revenue  tariff.  What  is  a  protective  tariff  ?  It  is  a  tax  or  duty 
put  upon  foreign  merchandise  and  foreign  products,  whether  of 
the  field,  or  the  factory,  or  the  mine;  upon  those  articles  which 
come  in  competition  with  what  we  produce  here;  and  the  Repub 
lican  idea  is  to  let  everything  from  abroad,  save  and  except  lux 
uries,  come  in  free,  if  we  cannot  produce  them  in  the  United 
States,  but  put  the  tax  or  the  duty  upon  the  competing  foreign 
product,  and  thus  encourage  our  own  industries  and  our  own  people 
in  their  chosen  avocations;  and  that  is  the  way  we  impose  duties 
under  the  policy  of  the  Republican  party.  The  fact  is,  that  it  is 
the  national  policy,  and  has  been  from  the  foundation  of  the  gov 
ernment  to  collect  revenues  from  import  duties,  and  if  we  would 
to-day  repeal  all  our  internal  revenue  laws,  or  so  much  thereof 
as  might  be  safely  spared,  the  question  of  the  surplus  which  now 
faces  us  would  vex  us  no  longer,  and  we  could  raise  all  the  rev 
enues  needed  for  the  current  expenses  and  obligations  of  the  gov 
ernment  easily  from  custom  duties,  and  I  believe  that  is  what  the 
Republican  party  ought  to  do.  That  is,  to  repeal  so  much  of  the 
internal  revenue  laws,  or  all  if  not  needed,  and  let  the  protective 
tariff  stand.  Now,  who  are  they,  gentlemen  of  the  Republican 
club,  who  complain  against  this  iniquitous  tariff?  It  is  not  the 
farmer;  it  is  not  the  wage-earner;  it  is  not  the  manufacturer;  it 
is  not  the  capitalist,  whose  money  is  invested  in  protected  enter 
prises;  it  is  not  the  consumer.  The  complaint  comes  from  some 
other  source.  I  say  to  you  here  to-night  that  there  is  not  a  single 
American  interest,  or  a  single  American  citizen  injured  by  the 
protective  policy  of  the  Republican  party.  Not  one.  Who  in 


336  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

New  York  is  complaining  of  our  protective  system?  Importers 
— yes,  and  mugwumps.  This  agitation  comes  from  the  importers 
and  from  the  foreign  merchant  and  foreign  manufacturers,  as 
Henry  Clay  put  it  fifty-six  years  ago.  He  said  the  opposition  came 
from  British  factors;  came  from  the  reviewers,  came  from  the  lit 
erary  speculators — just  the  kind  of  mugwumpery  we  have  now. 
This  agitation  comes  from  the  school,  so-called,  from  the  poets, 
whose  poetry  may  be  good  enough,  but  whose  political  economy  we 
must  decline  to  accept.  This  opposition  comes  from  the  dilettante 
and  the  diplomat,  from  the  men  of  fixed  income — from  those  "who 
toil  not,  neither  do  they  spin,"  "nor  do  they  gather  into  barns" — 
following  up  the  quotation. 

This  agitation  comes  from  that  class  of  people — those  men  who 
want  everything  cheap  but  money;  everything  hard  to  get  but 
coin;  who  prefer  the  customs,  the  civilization  of  other  countries 
to  our  own,  and  who  think  nothing  so  wholesome  as  that  which  is 
imported,  whether  it  be  merchandise  or  whether  it  be  manners; 
and  they  want  no  tariff  to  prevent  the  free  and  unobstructed  use 
of  both.  They  want  their  clothes  a  little  cheaper;  they  want 
their  hats  a  little  cheaper;  they  want  their  French 
boots  a  little  cheaper.  A  college-bred  American — not  a 
New  Yorker — whose  inherited  wealth  had  enabled  him  to 
gratify  every  wish  of  his  heart,  who  had  spent  very  much  time 
abroad,  said  to  me  a  few  years  ago,  with  a  sort  of  listless  satisfac 
tion,  that  he  had  outgrown  his  country.  What  a  confession !  Out 
grown  his  country!  Outgrown  the  United  States!  Think  of  it. 
I  thought  at  the  time  it  would  have  been  truer  had  he  said  that 
his  country  had  outgrown  him,  but  he  was  in  no  condition  of 
mind  to  have  appreciated  so  patent  a  fact.  He  had  had  no  con 
nection  with  the  progressive  spirit  of  the  country;  he  had  con 
tributed  nothing  to  her  proud  position,  and  to  the  uplifting  and 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  WILLIAM  McKINLEY  337 

welfare  of  her  people;  he  had  had  no  share  in  the  onward  march 
of  the  republic ;  the  busy,  pushing  American  boy,  of  humble  origin, 
educated  at  the  public  schools,  had  swept  by  him,  as  effort  and 
energy  always  lead,  and  left  the  laggard  behind.  His  inherited 
wealth  was  not  invested  in  protected  enterprises,  nor  was  his 
heart  located  where  it  had  any  sympathy  with  the  people  with 
whom  he  was  bred  and  reared.  The  fact  is,  his  country  had  got 
so  far  ahead  of  him  that  he  was  positively  lonesome  and  out  of  line 
of  the  grand  procession.  He  was  a  free-trader,  for  he  told  me  so, 
and  he  complained  bitterly  that  the  tariff  was  a  trammel  upon 
the  progressive  men  of  the  country,  and  that  it  severely  handi 
capped  him.  When  I  pushed  him  to  say  in  what  particular  the 
tariff  was  a  burden  upon  him  as  one  of  sixty  millions  of  people, 
he  raised  his  hand — which  had  never  been  touched  by  honest  toil 
— which  had  never  been  soiled  by  labor,  and  said  to  me,  "Mr. 
McKinley,  these  gloves  come  enormously  high  by  reason  of  your 
tariff;  the  duty  of  50  per  cent,  is  actually  added  to  their  foreign 
cost,  and  it  falls  heavily  upon  us  consumers."  What  answer  could 
I  make  ?  Life  was  too  short.  If  I  had  pointed  him  to  the  trophies 
of  the  protective  system  he  would  not  have  understood  them,  and 
I  could  only  gaze  upon  him  in  speechless  silence,  with  a  feeling 
of  mingled  pity,  sorrow  and  contempt.  And,  gentlemen,  I  learned 
later  that  he  became  a  mugwump.  That  was  the  newest  manifes 
tation  of  protest  against  our  iniquitous  tariff  law.  And,  then, 
it  was  not  a  large  company,  nor  a  promiscuous  one ;  he  had  oppor 
tunity  of  leadership  in  that  organization,  for  all  are  leaders,  and 
in  the  companionship  of  congenial  spirits  he  found  a  restful 
home,  a  suitable  asylum  for  the  man  who  had  outgrown  his  coun 
try.  There  is  another  class  of  our  citizens,  and  then  I  am  through. 
What  time  do  you  close  your  performance?  There  is  another 
class  of  our  fellow-citizens  who  are  free-traders;  who  have  been 


338  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

so  long  out  of  the  country  that  they  have  so  lost  the  aims  and  pur 
poses  of  parties  that  they  have  not  been  able  for  twenty  years  to 
cast  a  vote  which  expressed  their  views,  or  even  a  fraction  of 
them.  I  believe  I  quote  correctly  from  Mr.  Lowell.  There  have 
been  no  ideas;  a  perfect  absence  of  ideas,  for  which  these  gentle 
men  could  give  their  support  or  their  suffrages  for  a  period  of 
twenty  years.  Think  of  that.  The  honest  payment  of  the  pub 
lic  debt  against  threatened  repudiation — that  was  a  great  issue 
less  than  twenty  years  ago;  you  will  remember  the  battle  that 
we  fought.  That  was  beneath  their  thoughtful  concern.  The  re 
sumption  of  specie  payment,  led  by  the  distinguished  financier, 
Mr.  Sherman,  who  sits  at  this  table,  who  put  our  finances  upon  a 
solid  foundation,  and  who  made  the  old  greenback  lift  its  head 
in  its  pride  and  glory  and  declare  that  it  knew  "its  redeemer 
liveth."  That  issue  was  wholly  unworthy  of  these  gentlemen. 
And  not  only  have  there  been  no  ideas  worthy  of  their  support, 
but  there  have  been  no  statesmen ;  there  have  been  no  representa 
tive  Americans ;  there  have  been  no  typical  American  citizens  since 
Lincoln  was  snatched  from  us — snatched  by  a  cruel  bravo  from 
the  theatre  of  things,  to  become  a  saint  of  nature  in  the  Pantheon 
of  kings,  and  there  had  been  nobody  like  Lincoln  until  we  got 
Cleveland.  That  is  what  Mr.  Lowell  said.  There  has  been  an  ab 
sence  of  representative  Americans.  If  so,  what  a  national  hu 
miliation!  Grant,  who  closed  his  lips  on  the  word  victory  at  the 
Wilderness  and  refused  to  speak,  but  fought  it  out  on  that  line 
and  in  that  spirit  until  the  final  grand  surrender  at  Appomattox 
Court  House;  General  Sherman,  who  delved  into  the  mountains  of 
Cumberland,  and  made  that  magnificent  march  from  Atlanta  to 
the  sea;  that  gallant  little  Irishman,  Phil  Sheridan,  who  never 
stopped  to  unbuckle  his  spurs  from  Harper's  Ferry  to  the  rebel 
rout  at  Cedar  Creek,  and  who  made  the  scene  of  Stonewall  Jack- 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  WILLIAM  McKINLEY  339 

son's  fame  his  field  of  glory — those  three  grand  men,  in  the  esti 
mation  of  Mr.  Lowell,  belong  to  the  lower  type,  or  else  have  been 
entirely  forgotten.  We  have  come  to  regard  those  gentlemen  as 
representative  Americans,  whose  matchless  courage  and  intense 
Americanism  have  saved  America  to  the  world^  the  freest  and  best 
government  to  mankind,  forever  and  forever.  Garfield  and  Sum- 
ner,  Wilson  and  Wade,  Hayes  and  Arthur — the  latter  your  own 
fellow-citizen,  who  made  one  of  the  best  Presidents  we  ever  had — 
John  Sherman  and  James  G.  Elaine,  ex-Senator  Warner  Miller  and 
Senator  Evarts,  and  Senator  Allison,  any  one  of  whom  lightning 
may  strike,  God  only  knows  whom ;  and  it  does  not  make  any  dif 
ference  which  one  it  does  strike,  for  whichever  one  it  does  he  will 
lead  the  grand  old  Republican  party  to  victory,  and  this  New  York 
club  will  stand  by  him  and  follow  him  to  glorious  triumph.  These 
gentlemen,  mugwump  gentlemen,  cannot  find  any  ideas  that  suit 
them ;  and  I  thank  God  it  is  so ;  I  thank  God  that  such  ideas  can 
not  thrive  and  live  on  free  soil  and  among  free  men,  and  that  it  is 
so  is  the  proudest  monument  of  our  intelligence,  our  civilization, 
and  our  patriotism.  I  wish  I  might  talk  the  tariff  to  you  to 
night,  but  I  cannot.  I  can  only  appeal  to  you  to  stand  by  the  pro 
tective  system,  and  thus  preserve  the  dignity  and  independence  of 
American  labor,  and  maintain  the  American  schoolhouse,  and  the 
American  home,  and  American  possibility,  to  the  present  and  to  the 
future  generations.  I  thank  you,  gentlemen. 


ADDRESS  OF 

HON.  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

Ex-President  of  the  United  States 


Mr.  President,  and  you,  iny  fellow  members  of  the  Eepublican 
Club,  and  you,  my  fellow  guests  of  the  Republican  Club,  before  I 
come  to  the  matter  which  I  have  specially  to  lay  before  you  to 
night  let  me  say  a  word  on  another  subject. 

Prior  to  receiving  the  invitation  to  address  this  club  on  this  day 
I  had  already  accepted  an  invitation  from  one  who  is  a  guest  with 
me  to-night,  General  Howard,  who  was  to  give  a  dinner  to-night 
in  behalf  of  a  cause  which  every  man  who  believes  in  the  memory 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  who  believes  in  the  Union,  should  have 
at  heart. 

On  the  last  occasion  when  General  Howard  spoke  with  the  great 
martyred  President,  President  Lincoln  showed  himself  deeply  in 
terested  in  the  welfare  of  the  people  of  East  Tennessee,  Kentucky 
and  the  Virginia  mountains,  and  spoke  so  earnestly  of  their  wel 
fare  that  General  Howard  then  pledged  himself  to  do  all  he  could 
to  promote  the  welfare  of  those  people  among  whom  Lincoln  was 
born,  and  in  pursuance  of  that  pledge  he  and  those  associated 
with  him  have  established  a  group  of  schools,  called  the  Lincoln 
Memorial  University,  at  Cumberland  Gap,  for  the  industrial,  nor 
mal  and  academic  training  of  those  people.  And  the  General  has 
felt  that  he  was  in  a  peculiar  way  carrying  out  the  purpose  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  in  dedicating  himself  to  that  work. 

I  should  not  have  felt  at  liberty  to  disregard  his  invitation  to 


THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 


me  for  any  other  invitation  except  that  which  I  have  accepted 
this  evening.  But  when  I  told  the  General  what  this  club  meant 
to  me,  and  what  it  meant  to  me  to  come  as  President  of  the 
United  States  among  my  fellow  members  here,  the  General  at 
once  released  me  from  my  promise  to  him. 

And  now  in  what  I  have  to  say  to  you  to-night  I  shall  not  strive 
to  entertain  you.  I  shall  try  to  speak  to  you  in  a  manner  to  ex 
press  what  you  and  I,  I  believe,  have  most  at  heart. 

I  do  not  —  I  will  change  the  form  of  that  sentence  —  you  here 
are  Republicans  only  secondarily  —  you  are  Americans  first.  And 
I  speak  to  you  to-night  as  a  typical  gathering  of  my  fellow  Amer 
icans.  Typical  in  the  fact  that  we  represent  different  creeds, 
that  some  of  us  were  born  here  and  some  abroad,  that  some  of 
us  live  here,  some  in  the  West  and  some  in  the  South,  but  that  we 
are  each  and  all,  every  one  of  us,  without  regard  to  creed  or 
birthplace,  good  Americans  and  nothing  else. 

I  speak  to  you,  my  old  friends  and  companions,  to  you,  with 
many  of  whom  I  have  been  intimately  associated  in  political  life 
from  the  time  that  I  cast  my  first  vote,  to  you  the  men  of  the 
great  war  to  whom  I  looked  up  from  the  time  I  came  to  manhood, 
as  setting  the  example  for  every  young  American  to  follow  should 
ever  another  war  call  for  the  people  of  the  United  States,  to  one 
or  two  of  you  beside  whom  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  fight  in  a 
little  war  —  it  wasn't  a  big  war,  but  it  was  all  the  war  there 
was.  I  speak  to  a  body  of  men  who  have  rendered  in  the  past, 
and  are  rendering  in  the  present,  in  the  army,  in  the  navy,  on 
the  bench,  in  the  Senate,  in  private  life,  the  kind  of  service  which 
makes  us  content,  and  more  than  content  to  be  American  citizens. 
And,  therefore,  I  intend  to  speak  to  you  to-night,  not  as  Repub 
licans  only,  not  as  New  Yorkers  only,  but  as  good  Americans,  good 
citizens  of  the  United  States,  and,  therefore,  having  deeply  at 


ADDRESS  OF  EX-PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT  343 

heart  the  problems  connected  with  any  and  all  of  our  fellow- 
citizens  in  whatever  part  of  the  Union  they  live. 

In  his  second  inaugural,  in  a  speech  which  will  be  read  as  long 
as  the  memory  of  this  nation  endures,  Abraham  Lincoln  closed  by 
saying: 

"With  malice  toward  none;  with  charity  for  all;  with  firm 
ness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive  on 
to  finish  the  work  we  are  in;  .  .  .  to  do  all  which  may  achieve 
and  cherish  a  just  and  lasting  peace  among  ourselves,  and  with 
ell  nations." 

Immediately  after  his  re-election  he  had  already  spoken  thus; 
mind  you,  gentlemen,  speaking  this  within  twenty-four  hours 
after  his  re-election  to  the  presidency  in  the  midst  of  a  civil  war 
which,  because  of  its  extreme  bitterness,  would  have  corroded 
with  a  like  bitterness  the  soul  of  any  man  less  high-minded  than 
he  was.  He  said: 

"The  strife  of  the  election  is  but  human  nature  practically  ap 
plied  to  the  facts  of  the  case.  What  has  occurred  in  this  case 
must  ever  recur  in  similar  cases.  Human  nature  will  not  change. 
In  any  future  great  national  trial,  compared  with  the  men  of  this, 
we  shall  have  as  weak  and  as  strong,  as  silly  and  as  wise,  as  bad, 
and  as  good.  Let  us,  therefore,  study  the  incidents  of  this  as 
philosophy  to  learn  wisdom  from,  and  none  of  them  as  wrongs  to 
be  revenged.  .  .  .  May  not  all  having  a  common  interest 
reunite  in  a  common  eifort  to  serve  our  common  country?  For 
my  own  part,  I  have  striven  and  shall  strive  to  avoid  placing  any 
obstacle  in  the  way.  So  long  as  I  have  been  here" — thus  spoke 
Abraham  Lincoln — "I  have  not  willingly  planted  a  thorn  in  any 
man's  bosom.  While  I  am  deeply  sensible  to  the  high  compli 
ment  of  a  re-election,  and  duly  grateful,  as  I  trust,  to  Almighty 
God  for  having  directed  my  countrymen  to  a  right  conclusion,  as 


344  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

I  think,  for  their  own  good,  it  adds  nothing  to  my  satisfaction 
that  any  other  man  may  be  disappointed  or  pained  by  the  result. 

"May  I  ask  those  who  have  not  differed  with  me  to  join  with 
me  in  this  same  spirit  toward  those  who  have?" 

This  is  the  spirit  in  which  mighty  Lincoln  sought  to  bind  up 
the  nation's  wounds  when  its  soul  was  yet  seething  with  fierce 
hatreds,  with  wrath,  with  rancor,  with  all  the  evil  and  dreadful 
passions  provoked  by  civil  war.  Surely  this  is  the  spirit  which  all 
Americans  should  show  now,  when  there  is  so  little  excuse  for 
malice  or  rancor  or  hatred,  when  there  is  so  little  of  vital  con 
sequence  to  divide  brother  from  brother. 

Lincoln,  himself  a  man  of  Southern  birth,  did  not  hesitate  to 
appeal  to  the  sword  when  he  became  satisfied  that  in  no  other 
way  could  the  Union  be  saved,  for  high  though  he  put  peace  he 
put  righteousness  still  higher.  He  warred  for  the  Union;  he 
warred  to  free  the  slave;  and  when  he  warred  he  warred  in 
earnest,  for  it  is  a  sign  of  weakness  to  be  half-hearted  when  blows 
must  be  struck.  But  he  felt  only  love,  a  love  as  deep  as  the  ten 
derness  of  his  great  and  sad  heart,  for  all  his  countrymen  alike 
in  the  North  and  in  the  South,  and  he  longed  above  everything 
for  the  day  when  they  should  once  more  be  knit  together  in  the 
unbreakable  bonds  of  eternal  friendship. 

We  of  to-day,  in  dealing  with  all  our  fellow-citizens,  white  or 
colored,  North  or  South,  should  strive  to  show  just  the  qualities 
that  Lincoln  showed;  his  steadfastness  in  striving  after  the  right, 
and  his  infinite  patience  and  forbearance  with  those  who  saw 
the  right  less  clearly  than  he  did ;  his  earnest  endeavor  to  do  what 
was  best,  and  yet  his  readiness  to  accept  the  best  that  was  prac 
ticable  when  the  ideal  best  was  unattainable ;  his  unceasing  effort 
to  cure  what  was  evil,  coupled  with  his  refusal  to  make  a  bad 


ADDRESS  OF  EX-PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT  345 

situation  worse  by  any  ill-judged  or  ill-timed  effort  to  make  it 
better. 

The  great  Civil  War,  in  which  Lincoln  towered  as  the  loftiest 
figure,  left  us  not  only  a  reunited  country,  but  a  country  which 
has  the  proud  right  to  claim  as  its  own  the  glory  won  alike  by 
those  who  wore  the  blue  and  by  those  who  wore  the  gray;  by 
those  who  followed  Grant  and  by  those  who  followed  Lee,  for 
both  fought  with  equal  bravery  and  with  equal  sincerity  of  con 
viction,  each  striving  for  the  light  as  it  was  given  him  to  see 
the  light,  though  it  is  now  clear  to  all  that  the  triumph  of  the 
cause  of  freedom  and  of  the  Union  was  essential  to  the  welfare 
of  mankind.  We  are  now  one  people,  a  people  with  failings  which 
we  must  not  blink,  but  a  people  with  great  qualities  in  which 
we  have  the  right  to  feel  just  pride. 

All  good  Americans  who  dwell  in  the  North  must,  because  they 
are  good  Americans,  feel  the  most  earnest  friendship  for  their 
fellow-countrymen  who  dwell  in  the  South,  a  friendship  all  the 
greater  because  it  is  in  the  South  that  we  find  in  its  most  acute 
phase  one  of  the  gravest  problems  before  our  people,  the  problem 
of  so  dealing  with  the  man  of  one  color  as  to  secure  him  the  rights 
that  no  man  would  grudge  him  if  he  were  of  another  color.  To 
solve  this  problem  it  is,  of  course,  necessary  to  educate  him  to  per 
form  the  duties  a  failure  to  perform  which  will  render  him  a  curse 
to  himself  and  to  all  around  him.  Mind  that.  And  it  is  true 
of  every  one.  In  addition  to  rights  in  every  republic  there  are 
correlative  duties.  And  if  the  man,  black  or  white,  is  not  trained 
to  do  his  duty  he  becomes  necessarily  a  festering  plague-spot  in 
the  whole  body  politic. 

Most  certainly  all  clear-sighted  and  generous  men  in  the  North 
appreciate  the  difficulty  and  perplexity  of  this  problem,  sympathize 
with  the  South  in  the  embarrassment  of  conditions  for  which 


346  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

she  is  not  alone  responsible,  feel  an  honest  wish  to  help  her  where 
help  is  practicable,  and  have  the  heartiest  respect  for  those  brave 
and  earnest  men  of  the  South  who,  in  the  face  of  fearful  difficul 
ties,  are  doing  all  that  men  can  do  for  the  betterment  alike  of 
white  and  of  black. 

The  attitude  of  the  North — I  would  always  rather  preach  about 
the  sins  prevalent  in  the  particular  congregation  I  am  addressing 
— the  attitude  of  the  North  toward  the  negro  is  far  from  what 
it  should  be,  and  there  is  need  that  the  North  also  should  act  in 
good  faith  upon  the  principle  of  giving  to  each  man  what  is  justly 
due  him,  of  treating  him  on  his  worth  as  a  man,  granting  him  no 
special  favors,  but  denying  him  no  proper  opportunity  for  labor 
and  the  reward  of  labor.  But  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the 
South  render  the  problem  there  far  greater  and  far  more  acute. 

Neither  I  nor  any  other  man  can  say  that  any  given  way  of 
approaching  that  problem  will  present  in  our  time  even  an  ap 
proximately  perfect  solution,  but  we  can  safely  say  that  there 
can  never  be  such  solution  at  all  unless  we  approach  it  with  the 
effort  to  do  fair  and  equal  justice  among  all  men,  and  to  demand 
from  them  in  return  just  and  fair  treatment  for  others.  Our 
effort  should  be  to  secure  to  each  man,  whatever  his  color,  equality 
of  opportunity,  equality  of  treatment  before  the  law. 

And  let  me  interject  right  here.  It  is  forty  years  since  the 
Civil  War  came  to  a  close  within  a  few  weeks,  it  is  nearly  forty 
years,  this  anniversary  of  Lincoln's  birthday,  since  the  anniver 
sary  of  Lincoln's  death,  and  surely  in  all  this  land  there  should 
be  no  audience  to  whom  such  an  appeal  as  that  I  am  making 
should  appeal  more  than  to  this  which  I  am  now  addressing. 

As  a  people  striving  to  shape  our  action  in  accordance  with 
the  great  law  of  righteousness,  we  cannot  afford  to  take  part 
in  or  be  indifferent  to  the  oppression  or  maltreatment  of  any 


ADDRESS  OF  EX-PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT  347 

man  who,  against  crushing  disadvantages,  has  by  his  own  in 
dustry,  energy,  self-respect  and  perseverance  struggled  upward 
to  a  position  which  would  entitle  him  to  the  respect  of  his  fel 
lows  if  only  his  skin  were  of  a  different  hue, 

Every  generous  impulse  in  us  revolts  at  the  thought  of  thrust 
ing  down  instead  of  helping  up  such  a  man.  To  deny  any  man 
the  fair  treatment  granted  to  others  no  better  than  he  is  to  com 
mit  a  wrong  upon  him — a  wrong  sure  to  react  in  the  long  run 
upon  those  guilty  of  such  denial.  The  only  safe  principle  upon 
which  Americans  can  act  is  that  of  "all  men  up,"  not  that  of 
"some  men  down."  If  in  any  community  the  level  of  intelli 
gence,  morality  and  thrift  among  the  colored  men  can  be  raised, 
it  is,  humanly  speaking,  sure  that  the  same  level  among  the 
whites  will  be  raised  to  an  even  higher  degree,  and  it  is  no  less 
sure  that  the  debasement  of  the  blacks  will  in  the  end  carry  with 
it  an  attendant  debasement  of  the  whites. 

The  problem  is  so  to  adjust  the  relations  between  two  races  of 
different  ethnic  type  that  the  rights  of  neither  be  abridged  nor 
jeoparded;  that  the  backward  race  be  trained  so  that  it  may  enter 
into  the  possession  of  true  freedom — not  false  freedom — true  free 
dom,  while  the  forward  race  is  enabled  to  preserve  unharmed  the 
high  civilization  wrought  out  by  its  forefathers.  The  working 
out  of  this  problem  must  necessarily  be  slow;  it  is  not  possible  in 
off-hand  fashion  to  obtain  or  to  confer  the  priceless  boons  of  free 
dom,  industrial  efficiency,  political  capacity  and  domestic  moral 
ity.  And  that  is  a  lesson  that  some  of  our  good  friends  in  this 
country  need  to  learn  in  dealing  with  outside  peoples.  All  the 
resolutions  passed  at  all  the  anti-imperialist  gatherings  held  in 
the  United  States  since  the  close  or  the  beginning  of  the  war 
with  Spain,  have  not  availed  for  the  welfare  of  the  people  of 
the  Philippines  one  one-hundredth  part  as  much  as  what  was 


348  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

done  by  any  one  day's  work  of  the  present  Secretary  of  War,  Sec 
retary  Taft.  Gentlemen,  this  meeting  is  all  right.  Nor  is  it  only 
necessary  to  train  the  colored  man;  it  is  quite  as  necessary  to 
train  the  white  man,  for  on  his  shoulders  rests  a  well-nigh  un 
paralleled  sociological  responsibility.  It  is  a  problem  demanding 
the  best  thought,  the  utmost  patience,  the  most  earnest  effort,  the 
broadest  charity — that  is  the  word  Lincoln  used — charity  toward 
all — the  broadest  charity  of  the  statesman,  the  student,  the  phil 
anthropist,  of  the  leaders  of  thought  in  every  department  of  our 
national  life.  The  Church  can  be  a  most  important  factor  in 
solving  it  aright.  But  above  all  else  we  need  for  its  successful 
solution  the  sober,  kindly,  steadfast,  unselfish  performance  of  duty 
by  the  average  plain  citizen  in  his  everyday  dealings  with  his 
fellows. 

The  ideal  of  elemental  justice  meted  out  to  every  man  is  the 
ideal  we  should  keep  ever  before  us.  It  will  be  many  a  long  day 
before  we  attain  to  it,  and  unless  we  show  not  only  devotion  to  it, 
but  also  wisdom  and  self-restraint  in  the  exhibition  of  that  devo 
tion,  we  shall  defer  the  time  for  its  realization  still  further.  In 
striving  to  attain  to  so  much  of  it  as  concerns  dealing  with  men 
of  different  colors,  we  must  remember  two  things. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  true  of  the  colored  man,  as  it  is  true  of 
the  white  man,  that  in  the  long  run  his  fate  must  depend  far 
more  upon  his  own  effort  than  upon  the  efforts  of  any  outside 
friend.  That  applies  to  every  man.  There  is  not  one  of  us  that 
does  not  occasionally  stumble,  and  shame  to  each  of  us  if  he  does 
not  stretch  out  a  hand  to  help  the  brother  who  thus  stumbles. 
Help  him  if  he  stumbles,  but  remember  that  if  he  lies  down  there 
is  no  use  in  trying  to  carry  him.  It  will  hurt  both  of  you. 
Every  vicious,  venal  or  ignorant  colored  man  is  an  even  greater 
foe  to  his  own  race  than  to  the  community  as  a  whole.  The 


ADDRESS  OF  EX-PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT  349 

colored  man's  self-respect  entitles  him  to  do  that  share  in  the 
political  work  of  the  country  which  is  warranted  by  his  individual 
ability  and  integrity  and  the  position  he  has  won  for  himself. 
But  the  prime  requisite  of  the  race  is  moral  and  industrial  up 
lifting. 

Laziness  and  shiftlessness,  these,  and,  above  all,  vice  and  crim 
inality  of  every  kind,  are  evils  more  potent  for  harm  to  the  black 
race  than  all  acts  of  oppression  of  white  men  put  together.  The 
colored  man  who  fails  to  condemn  crime  in  another  colored  man, 
who  fails  to  co-operate  in  all  lawful  ways  in  bringing  colored 
criminals  to  justice,  is  the  worst  enemy  of  his  own  people,  as  well 
as  an  enemy  to  all  the  people.  Law-abiding  black  men  should,  for 
the  sake  of  their  race,  be  foremost  in  relentless  and  unceasing 
warfare  against  law-breaking  black  men.  If  the  standards  of 
private  morality  and  industrial  efficiency  can  be  raised  high 
enough  among  the  black  race,  then  its  future  on  this  continent 
is  secure.  The  stability  and  purity  of  the  home  are  vital  to 
the  welfare  of  the  black  race  as  they  are  to  the  welfare  of  every 
race. 

In  the  next  place,  the  white  man,  who,  if  only  he  is  willing,  can 
help  the  colored  man  more  than  all  other  white  men  put  to 
gether,  is  the  white  man  who  is  his  neighbor,  North  or  South.  Let 
me  interject  here,  it  is  a  good  thing  to  remember,  that  while  it  is 
occasionally  proper  to  join  in  mass  meetings  and  call  attention  to 
our  neighbor's  shortcomings,  it  is  normally  better  to  attend  to  our 
own.  Each  of  us  must  do  his  whole  duty  without  flinching,  and 
if  that  duty  is  national  it  must  be  done  in  accordance  with  the 
immutable  principles  upon  which  our  nation  stands,  but  in  en 
deavoring  each  to  be  his  brother's  keeper,  it  is  wise  to  remember 
that  ordinarily  each  can  do  most  for  that  brother  who  is  his  next- 
door  neighbor.  If  we  are  sincere  friends  of  the  negro,  let  us 


350  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

each  in  his  own  locality  show  it  by  his  action  therein,  and  let  us 
each  show  it  also  by  upholding  the  hands  of  the  white  man  in 
whatever  locality,  who  is  striving  to  do  justice  to  the  poor  and 
the  helpless,  to  be  a  shield  to  those  whose  need  for  such  a  shield  is 
great. 

The  heartiest  acknowledgments  are  due  to  the  ministers,  the 
judges  and  law  officers,  the  grand  juries,  the  public  men,  and  the 
great  daily  newspapers  in  the  South,  who  have  recently  done 
such  effective  work  in  leading  the  crusade  against  lynching  in 
the  South ;  and  I  am  glad  to  say  that  during  the  last  three  months 
the  returns,  as  far  as  they  can  be  gathered,  show  a  smaller  num 
ber  of  lynchings  than  for  any  other  three  months  during  the  last 
twenty  years.  Those  are  rather  striking  figures  and  I  take  a  cer 
tain  satisfaction  in  them  in  view  of  some  of  the  gloomy  fore 
bodings  of  last  summer.  Let  us  uphold  in  every  way  the  hands 
of  the  men  who  have  led  in  this  work,  who  are  striving  to  do  all 
their  work  in  this  spirit.  I  am  about  to  quote  from  the  address 
of  the  Right  Reverend  Robert  Strange,  Bishop  Coadjutor  of  North 
Carolina,  as  given  in  "The  Southern  Churchman'*  of  October  8, 
1904— October  8th  last. 

The  bishop  first  enters  an  emphatic  plea  against  any  social  in 
termingling  of  the  races,  a  question  which  must,  of  course,  be 
left  to  the  people  of  each  community  to  settle  for  themselves,  as 
in  such  a  matter  no  one  community — and  indeed  no  one  indi 
vidual — can  dictate  to  any  other;  always  provided  that  in  each 
locality  men  keep  in  mind  the  fact  that  there  must  be  no  confus 
ing  of  civil  privileges  with  social  intercourse.  Civil  law  cannot 
regulate  social  practices.  Society,  as  such,  is  a  law  unto  itself, 
and  will  always  regulate  its  own  practices  and  habits.  Full  recog 
nition  of  the  fundamental  fact  that  all  men  should  stand  on  an 
equal  footing  as  regards  civil  privileges  in  no  way  interferes  with 


ADDRESS  OF  EX-PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT  351 

recognition  of  the  further  fact  that  all  reflecting  men  of  both 
races  are  united  in  feeling  that  race  purity  must  be  maintained. 
The  bishop  continues  (I  am  quoting  what  this  Southern  bishop 


"What  should  the  white  men  of  the  South  do  for  the  negro? 
They  must  give  him  a  free  hand,  a  fair  field  and  a  cordial  god 
speed,  the  two  races  working  together  for  their  mutual  benefit 
and  for  the  development  of  our  common  country.  He  must  have 
liberty,  equal  opportunity  to  make  his  living,  to  earn  his  bread, 
to  build  his  home.  He  must  have  justice,  equal  rights,  and  pro 
tection  before  the  law.  He  must  have  -the  same  political  priv 
ileges;  the  suffrage  should  be  based  on  character  and  intelligence 
for  white  and  black  alike.  He  must  have  the  same  public  ad 
vantages  of  education;  the  public  schools  are  for  all  the  people, 
whatever  their  color  or  condition.  The  white  men  of  the  South 
should  give  hearty  and  respectful  consideration  to  the  exceptional 
men  of  the  negro  race,  to  those  who  have  the  character,  the  abil 
ity  and  desire  to  be  lawyers,  physicians,  teachers,  preachers,  lead 
ers  of  thought  and  conduct  among  their  own  men  and  women.  We 
should  give  them  cheer  and  opportunity  to  gratify  every  laudable 
ambition,  and  to  seek  every  innocent  satisfaction  among  their  own 
people.  Finally,  the  best  white  men  of  the  South  should  have 
frequent  conferences  with  the  best  colored  men,  where,  in  frank, 
earnest  and  sympathetic  discussion,  they  might  understand  each 
other  better,  smooth  difficulties,  and  so  guide  and  encourage  the 
weaker  race." 

Surely  we  can  all  of  us  join  in  expressing  our  substantial  agree 
ment  with  the  principles  thus  laid  down  by  this  North  Carolina 
bishop,  this  representative  of  the  Christian  thought  of  the  South. 

I  am  speaking  on  the  occasion  of  the  celebration  of  the  birth 
day  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  to  men  who  count  it  their  peculiar 


352  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

privilege  that  they  have  the  right  to  hold  Lincoln's  memory  dear 
and  the  duty  to  strive  to  work  along  the  lines  that  he  laid  down. 
We  can  pay  most  fitting  homage  to  his  memory  by  doing  the  tasks 
allotted  to  us  in  the  spirit  in  which  he  did  the  infinitely  greater 
and  more  terrible  tasks  allotted  to  him. 

Let  us  be  steadfast  for  the  right,  but  let  us  err  on  the  side  of 
generosity  rather  than  on  the  side  of  vindictiveness  toward  those 
who  differ  from  us  as  to  the  method  of  attaining  the  right.  Let 
us  never  forget  our  duty  to  help  in  uplifting  the  lowly,  to  shield 
from  wrong  the  humble,  and  let  us  likewise  act  in  a  spirit  of 
the  broadest  and  frankest  generosity  toward  all  our  brothers,  all 
our  fellow  countrymen;  in  a  spirit  proceeding  not  from  weakness, 
but  from  strength,  a  spirit  which  takes  no  more  account  of  lo 
cality  than  it  does  of  class  or  of  creed,  a  spirit  which  is  resolute 
ly  bent  on  seeing  that  the  Union  which  Washington  founded  and 
which  Lincoln  saved  from  destruction  shall  grow  nobler  and 
greater  throughout  the  ages  for  evermore. 

I  believe  in  this  country  with  all  my  heart  and  soul.  I  be 
lieve  that  our  people  will  in  the  end  rise  level  to  every  need,  will 
in  the  end  triumph  over  every  difficulty  that  rises  before  them. 
I  could  not  have  such  confident  faith  in  the  destiny  of  this  mighty 
people  if  I  had  it  merely  as  regards  one  portion  of  that  people. 
Throughout  our  land  things  on  the  whole  have  grown  better  and 
not  worse,  and  this  is  as  true  of  one  part  of  the  country  as  it  is 
of  another.  I  believe  in  the  Southerner  as  I  believe  in  the  North 
erner.  I  claim  the  right  to  feel  pride  in  his  great  qualities  and 
in  his  great  deeds  exactly  as  I  feel  pride  in  the  great  qualities  and 
deeds  of  every  other  American.  For  weal  or  for  woe  we  are  knit 
together,  and  we  shall  go  up  or  go  down  together,  and  I  believe 
that  we  shall  go  up  and  not  down,  that  we  shall  go  forward  in 
stead  of  halting  and  falling  back,  because  I  have  an  abiding  faith 


ADDRESS  OF  EX-PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT  353 

in  the  generosity,  the  courage,  the  resolution  and  the  common 
sense  of  all  my  countrymen. 

The  Southern  States  face  difficult  problems,  and  so  do  the  North 
ern  States.  Some  of  the  problems  are  the  same  for  the  entire 
country.  Others  exist  in  greater  intensity  in  one  section,  and  yet 
others  exist  in  greater  intensity  in  another  section.  But  in  the 
end  they  will  all  be  solved,  for  fundamentally  our  people  are 
the  same  throughout  this  land,  the  same  in  the  qualities  of  heart 
and  brain  and  hand  which  have  made  this  republic  what  it  is  in 
the  great  to-day;  which  will  make  it  what  it  is  to  be  in  the 
infinitely  greater  to-morrow.  I  admire  and  respect  and  believe 
in  and  have  faith  in  the  men  and  women  of  the  South  as  I  admire 
and  respect  and  believe  in  and  have  faith  in  the  men  and  women 
of  the  North.  All  of  us  alike,  Northerners  and  Southerners, 
Easterners  and  Westerners,  can  best  prove  our  fealty  to  the  na 
tion's  past  by  the  way  in  which  we  do  the  nation's  work  in  the 
present,  for  only  thus  can  we  be  sure  that  our  children's  children 
shall  inherit  Abraham  Lincoln's  single-hearted  devotion  to  the 
great  unchanging  creed  that  "righteousness  exalteth  a  nation." 


ADDRESS  OF 

HON.   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN 

Lincoln's  Vice-President 


Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Republican  Club:  I  thank 
you  for  this  cordial  greeting.  It  stirs  the  blood  of  age  and  makes 
the  pulses  leap.  But  I  am  too  sensible  that  it  is  a  demonstration 
belonging  not  to  me,  but  to  the  great  and  important  events  in 
which  I  was  a  very  humble  participator.  Men  are  as  unimportant 
in  crises  like  those  through  which  we  have  passed  as  the  merest 
atom  of  dust  that  is  borne  away  upon  the  bosom  of  the  wind.  It 
is  principle,  everlasting  and  undying  principle,  that  commands 
and  challenges  our  attention  and  our  respect. 

Mr.  President,  I  fear  there  is  a  grave  misunderstanding.  I 
came  here  with  what  I  supposed  an  express  understanding  that 
I  should  not  be  called  upon  to  speak.  My  age  alone  should  excuse 
me.  Yes,  Mr.  President,  young  in  years  while  the  heart  shall 
throb.  But,  alas,  the  limbs  will  tell  you  another  story. 

I  came  from  my  home  to  be  with  you  to-night  to  do  homage 
to  the  memory  of  one  of  the  greatest  men  the  world  has  ever 
known.  I  left  my  home  at  the  hazard  of  my  health,  that  I  might 
testify  by  my  presence  here  in  joining  with  you  in  paying  a 
tribute  to  the  memory  and  the  worth  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

It  was  for  that  I  came,  and  not  to  talk.  But  I  had  a  thought 
in  my  mind  which  it  was  my  purpose  to  suggest  to  this  noble  club, 
and  I  will  do  it.  We  speak  of  Washington  as  the  Father  of  his 
Country,  and  we  know  that  by  his  Fabian  policy,  the  liberties  and 


350  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

the  independence  of  these  colonies  were  finally  secured.  We  know 
the  wisdom  of  George  Washington  aided  in  laying  deep  and  strong 
the  foundations  upon  which  our  government  rests.  We  know  that 
he  aided  in  launching  the  old  ship  of  state  upon  that  foundation 
that  has  outridden  all  the  storms  in  the  past,  as,  in  God's  name,  we 
trust  it  will  outride  all  the  storms  in  the  future.  All  honor  then 
to  George  Washington  and  the  commemoration  of  his  name. 

I  think,  Mr.  President,  that  you  have  in  your  by-laws  a  pro 
vision  that  this  day  shall  be  saved  to  the  memory  of  the  birth  of 
Mr.  Lincoln.  Do  you  remember  that  we  have  incorporated  in  the 
statutes  of  our  country,  one  that  makes  the  birthday  of  George 
Washington  a  national  birthday?  It  rests  upon  no  separate  ar 
ticles  of  political  organization,  but  it  rests  upon  the  everlasting 
law.  I  have  come  here  to-night,  and  if  I  have  any  power,  I  would 
ask  it  with  all  the  force  I  can  urge,  that  you  join  with  me  in  mak 
ing  the  birthday  of  Abraham  Lincoln  a  national  birthday.  That, 
in  addition  to  participating  with  you  on  this  occasion,  has  brought 
me  here.  They  are  equally  entitled  to  have  their  birthdays  com 
memorated.  Every  age  has  produced  its  great  and  distinguished 
men,  the  names  of  some  of  whom  shall  never  die.  In  art,  in  lit 
erature,  in  arms,  in  the  mechanic  arts,  in  everything  that  serves 
to  aid  and  elevate  the  people,  the  world  has  produced  its  great 
and  distinguished  men.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  not  an  educated 
man,  but  he  was  a  learned  man.  The  world  was  the  school  in 
which  Abraham  Lincoln  graduated.  It  was  not  confined  to  the 
walls  of  your  colleges  and  your  higher  schools.  He  was  educated 
in  the  great  school  of  the  world.  His  professors,  his  tutors,  were 
the  lesson  of  humanity  which  belonged  to  the  world.  Such  was 
the  school  in  which  Abraham  Lincoln  was  educated.  Why,  that 
little  gem  of  a  speech  which  he  made  at  Gettysburg  will  be  taught 
by  our  mothers  to  their  children,  and  it  will  stand  as  a  gem  of 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN  357 

English  literature  in  all  the  ages  that  shall  come.  It  was  a  little 
speech  that  spoke  from  the  man  who  was  educated  in  the  schools 
of  the  world,  and  it  came  closer  home  to  the  hearts  and  the  fire 
sides  of  our  people.  Yes,  read  carefully  the  Life  of  Lincoln  by 
Nicolay  and  Hay.  They  give  you  a  better  idea  of  the  early  train 
ing  and  the  early  schooling  of  that  eminent  man,  and  you  can 
learn  there  how  close  he  was  to  the  hearts  of  all  our  people.  Was 
it  an  education  equal  to  that  other  school?  I  will  not  stop  to 
discuss  the  question.  Undoubtedly  the  blending  of  the  two  would 
be  the  desideratum,  but  which  is  the  better,  I  stand  not  here  to 
declare. 

One  was  an  education  that  brought  the  man  home  directly  to 
the  great  mass  of  our  people.  They  felt  it.  They  felt  his  words, 
that  would  have  been  cold  as  an  icicle  dropping  purely  from  the 
educated  man  of  the  schools. 

Now,  shall  we  not,  good  Republicans  of  this  club — and  I  am  glad 
to  meet  every  one  of  them — although  I  am  old  in  years,  time 
has  not  staled,  or  custom  cloyed,  the  interest  that  I  feel  in  sound 
Republicanism.  But,  alas,  I  am  grieved  at  some  of  the  doings  of 
our  National  Legislature.  They  cast  a  shade  of  sadness  over  my 
daily  life,  when  I  witness  the  treachery,  the  dishonesty,  and  the 
degraded  condition  in  which  some  of  our  Senators  stand. 

Now,  Mr.  President,  the  time  has  come  when  all  the  bitter  as 
perities  that  existed  against  Mr.  Lincoln  have  ceased.  The  world 
will  say  that  his  birthday  should  be  a  national  holiday.  Had  I 
remained  in  the  Senate  to  this  hour,  it  would  have  been  done  be 
fore  now.  You  are  a  strong,  a  vigorous,  an  active,  an  intelligent, 
and  purely  a  Republican  party.  Now,  you  can  put  that  wheel  in 
motion  which  shall  roll  on  to  success.  See  to  it  that  the  birthday 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  is  made  a  national  holiday.  Perhaps  I  may 
say  that  mainly  to  utter  those  few  words  I  was  induced  to  come 


358  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

here.  Remember,  I  can  see  the  boys  in  blue  as  they  tread  their 
solitary  rounds  in  their  camping  grounds,  and  I  can  hear  a  voice, 
gentle,  but  potent  to  my  ear,  that  commands  me  from  them  to 
regard  the  memory  of  Abraham  Lincoln  as  they  would  have 
done  had  God  in  his  inscrutable  wisdom  changed  our  relative 
positions. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY, 
BERKELEY 

THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 

Books  not  returned  on  time  are  subject  to  a  fine  of 
50c  per  volume  after  the  third  day  overdue,  increasing 
to  $1.00  per  volume  after  the  sixth  day.  Books  not  in 
demand  may  be  renewed  if  application  is  made  before 
expiration  of  loan  period. 


AUU   3,0 


MAR  \ 

gNtv.  of 


sec.  CIR.  «« 


Y  LOAN 


W76 


BERK. 


15m-4,'24 


YD   12452 


2.S5358 


• 


:>j 


